Paper Mario and the Broken Legacy
by pokemaster321
Summary: Set after Super Paper Mario, the Thousand Year door heros come back to solve another mystery in the region of Splitsville about an event that was told in the Dark Prognosticicus 1,000 years ago.
1. Prologue: The Road to Splitsville

Paper Mario and the Broken Legacy

No P.O.V (Prolouge)

Our story long time ago starts with a treasure in a distant land although not far from our Mushroom Kingdom. Treasure was spotted that was known to have properties to shape the world on how they please. The Dark Prognoticus has another prophecy to unfold on how these 8 treasures came to be. 1,000 years ago a man known as Gary Aaron found the 8 treasures and brought them together only to be controlled by their dark powers. Michael Toader his close friend sealed Gary away in a tower behind a steel door known by the townspeople as _The Legacy_. The treasures have the power to purify Gary's heart but they were scattered before something could be done as they were already used once to seal Gary. With the 8 treasures spread across the eastern half of the world but most were still in the region. Michael hoped that one day someone would find them and help his friend regain his good nature. Before that could happen though _The Legacy _became cracked and evil spread through half the land causing one half to be good natured and the other to be evil. _The Legacy _was split in half between good vs. evil but sadly our hero Michael passed away before anything could be resolved 50 years after the closing of _The Legacy_. Our journey starts now with a young girl named Princess Peach and-

"Okay we know this part now let's get to the actual story," said Luigi.

"Fine, geez _no wonder you're the least favorite_," said the narrator saying the last part of the sentence quietly.

"What was that, I'm so kicking your ass," said Luigi.

"No wait I'm not done yet," said the narrator.

***Fade to Black and Cut to Luigi's House***

Parakarry comes over to Mario's house delivering news to Mario and in fact multiple letters. Parakarry knocks on the door and says, "Mail Call!" then was about to leave until Luigi opens the door and tells Parakarry to wait and come inside.

"Were any of those letters from the princess?" asked Luigi.

"Yeah why?" said Parakarry.

"Just come inside and we'll tell you all that you need to know," said Luigi. Parakarry did finally step inside to see Mario drinking a cup of coffee. Then Luigi handed the letter that was from Princess Peach to Mario then Mario read it aloud in his best Princess Peach voice.

"Dear Mario: Come over to the castle, I have a treasure map and a cake for you waiting for saving this papery world for the 3rd time from evil about a month ago. I know what you're thinking, something is going to go wrong but trust me this time this treasure map spots treasure not some destroy the world device or any crystal stars of that nature so come on and stop by."

"Do you really think she won't get captured this time?" asked Luigi and Parakarry.

"No but hey free cake, come on Parakarry let's go so that we can possibly save peach from danger okay," said Mario raising his eyebrow and smirking with pleasure about possibly saving the world again and rescuing the magnificent Princess Peach.

"What about me?" asked Luigi?

"You have to pay the bills it is your house. If I come back and I don't get my coffee I'll chop your block so you make sure the bills are paid so I can come home to a healthy house," said Mario.

"I won't let you down bro," said Luigi.

"Idiot," said Mario quietly, "Let's go Parakarry."

"Right!" _Parakarry has permanently joined your party. HP: 25, Attack: 3, and, Defense: 2, Upgraded: One Star. He can fly you to places you need to go and over tough obstacles in your path by pressing the "X" button. Have fun adventuring!_

"What this 'X' button is hopefully it is useful," said Mario. Parakarry took Mario's arms and they flew off towards the rising sun towards Toad Town. They reached the castle and it didn't take too long as Mario and Parakarry walked up to Peach's thrown room only to see the Princess about to be taken away by Bowser.

"Mario! The cake is over there don't let Bowser eat it," said the Princess.

"Okay, wait are you seriously putting the cake before your safety?" asked Mario.

"I spent so long on that cake you and any of your partners better eat the whole damn thing before you rescue me," said Princess Peach.

"Okay," said Mario as he put the cake in his bag then went to fight Bowser but it was too late and Bowser took Peach away only to be intercepted by the X-Nauts who grabbed Peach onto their ship and traveled in an easterly direction.

"How the hell did they get here? Didn't you blow up their base," said Bowser.

"I thought I did but I guess they're taking a second crack at the Thousand-Year Door," said Mario.

"Actually no he's heading to this new place called Splitsville," said Bowser.

"He's going all the way to Splitsville? How do you know he's going there?" asked Parakarry.

"Well Grodus got a new body and he says that this thing in this door called _The Legacy_ will help him take over the world," said Bowser.

"_The Legacy _is a stupid name for a door," said Mario.

"It is but it looked up one of the most evil people of all time so I guess it has a right to be called a Legacy," said Parakarry.

"True, true," said Bowser, "Anyway go over there and get her. I hear this place has monsters that are really hard to fight so that 50 HP and 30 FP ain't gonna cut it this time. Also, there's a person there that levels up partners to 3 stars so you could gather up some friends."

"You seem to know a lot about this place," said Mario suspiciously.

"Bye!" yelled Bowser as he left in this Koopa Clown Car to his own castle.

"We should find some of your friends back at Rougeport to help. It's on the way to Splitsville," said Parakarry.

"Sweet let's go then, Parakarry let's fly shall we," said Mario.

"Let's go!" said Parakarry as he flew up into the air with Mario rolled up and the flew over to Rougeport only to be welcomed by Goombella who saw them coming this way while they were flying over to here. Mario dropped down and Parakarry dropped dead as he was tired from carrying Mario for over 6 hours across the ocean.

"Welcome back Mario! Who's the dead fellow?" said Goombella.

"The-The name…ugh… is Parakarry," said Parakarry.

"What did you do carry Mario here?" asked Goombella.

"In fact, yes I did and what have you been eating, why do you look so full?" Parakarry.

"I was eating that cake the Princess gave me," said Mario. Parakarry had his eyes wide open and he pushed Mario up against a wall.

"Don't you think maybe the paratroopa flying you over here would have wanted a bite to eat during that 6 hour flight during the hottest time of the day? Is there any more of the cake left?" asked Parakarry.

"There's a pie-," started Mario and Parakarry gobbled the whole thing down without even letting Mario finish but then Parakarry opened his mouth and pulled a treasure map. The map had all of Rougeport and Splitsville on it at the same time.

"Damn treasure map ruined my meal," said Parakarry sadly.

"They'll be food but first we have to locate some of our old partners," said Mario to Goombella.

"Yeah about that. Bobbery is out at sea. Flurrie is still on her acting career, Ms. Mowz still works as the thief so the only people left are Vivian, Speedy( the baby Yoshi), and Koops," said Goombella.

"Did somebody call my name," asked someone from the shadows as Vivian popped up out of nowhere and scarred the crap out of the rest of them. Vivian then came out and hugged Mario who was still a little stunned from the greeting.

"Hey… Vivian you nearly scared me half to death," said Mario and Goombella.

"Who are you?" asked Parakarry.

"Parakarry this is Vivian another one of my friends from the adventure I had at the Thousand-Year Door after we stopped Bowser," said Mario.

"What? You had an adventure before you met us," said Goombella.

"Yeah, I had to stop Bowser from using the Star Rod for his evil purposes," said Mario.

"Bowser was the main villain? Wow," said Vivian.

"Anyway this map could be magic so let's bring it to that place where we figured out the crystal star map worked," said Goombella.

***A few minutes later***

"YOU HAVE TO GO WHERE NOW," said a familiar booming voice.

"We have to go to Splitsville professor Frankly it's important, we have no transportation because Parakarry can't fly there due to wind issues. The only way to get by is to go by speed boat but I don't know anybody with a speed boat," said Goombella.

"Can't Vivian just use her shadows to get us there?" asked Mario.

"Splitsville is cut into good and evil. The evil side has monsters to powerful for us and the good side has a seal against things from coming inside without recognition from someone you know. I don't know anybody from Splitsville," said Vivian.

"That's a shame," said someone else from outside as Speedy came over and greeted everyone.

"The Great Gonzales Jr. Returns to save the day!" said Speedy as he said yellow and waved to everyone else.

"How did you know we were here? We were thinking of getting you but we were going to do it later," said Mario.

"Ms. Mowz told me so I came down as fast as I could," said Speedy.

"Okay, I have a solution. Go to Petalburg and I know someone named Trooper over there who could help you get over there safely," said the Professor.

"Thanks Professor that'll really help," said Goombella.

"Now get going and save the world Mario from whoever did this alright," said the Professor.

"The X-Nauts took Peach again after Bowser tried to take her," said Mario.

"Those scrubs again, I thought we killed 'em," said Speedy.

"I thought so to but they are still at large and this time we'll take them for good," said Mario. Then we started to leave until Professor Frankly opened the door and said, "Wait I almost forgot. Make room for this first strike badge so that you don't have to waste time fighting level 1 goombas alright."

"Yeah I'll take it," Mario said _you got the first strike badge_. Then we left for Petalburg.

"I guess we all get to permanently join your team Mario," said Vivian. _Vivian has permanently joined your party. HP: 25, Attack: 5, and, Defense: 0, Upgraded: One Star. She can hide you in the shadows to make sure you aren't spotted by enemies by pressing the "X" button._

"I'll help too," said Goombella. Goombella _has permanently joined your party. HP: 35, Attack: 3, and, Defense: 1, Upgraded: One Star. She can give helpful hints about your journey or basically just tell you where you are and anything interesting about that place by pressing the "X" button. _

"Don't leave me out! I'll bash on those X-Nauts heads with a Ground Pound!" said Speedy. Speedy the Yoshi _has permanently joined your party. HP: 25, Attack: 4, and, Defense: 1, Upgraded: One Star. He can help you get around places faster and also hover a little in the air by pressing the "X" button. Have fun adventuring!_

"Wow you guys toughened up since the last time I saw you, especially you Speedy. The Glitz Pitz must be working some wonders," said Mario.

"Yeah, I'm the fighter just below Rawk Hawk now and soon I'll be able to face him by myself," said Speedy happily.

"Anyway, it's time to see what Koops is up to so let's go to Petalburg," said Mario.

"Yeah!" said the rest of Mario's partners.

***Petalburg about an hour later***

Mario and co. walked up to Koops house to hear a baby crying in from inside the house, could that mean what Mario think it means? Mario walked inside to see Koops holding a Baby with Koopie Koo also holding the baby. They didn't notice that Mario and co. were inside.

"Wow, Koops ever since you took that trip with Mario you've gotten so much more buff and handsome," said Koopie Koo seductively.

"You say that all the time," said Koops sheepishly and then he kissed his wife.

"Oh Koops forget about KJ we'll just do this right here right now," said Koopie Koo as she started taking of Koops shell, helm, and sweatshirt.

"Okay you guys stop we have children in the room," said Mario.

"Holy shit Mario and you guys," said Koops and Koopie Koo as they hurriedly put on their shells and clothes fast enough so that hopefully they saw nothing. Mario noticed that Koops also had a blue shell and helmet on as well instead of the normal green shell and no helmet.

"Hey I noticed the new change in clothes. You look nice," said Vivian.

"Thanks I worked my way around with a boomerang while you were gone," said Koops.

"Anyway, we came in here look 5 minutes ago and you guys didn't even notice," said Speedy, "by the way what was it you were about to do."

"It's something I'll tell you when you're older," said Koops.

"I'm 2 I can handle anything that you throw at me," said Speedy.

"Not what I was about to throw at you, well what I was gonna _throw_ at my wife," said Koops laughing in his head at his dirty joke.

"What's with the double entrende… holy crap you were going to do "it" in front of your baby? What the hell!" said Goombella?

"Hey heat of the moment, anyway did you need something?" asked Koops.

"We have to save the world again so we're going to need your help," said Mario.

"What happened? Bowser or X-Nauts?" asked Koops.

"X-Nauts came back and they took Princess Peach and we need your help along with someone else named Trooper," said Vivian.

"You need Koops's younger brother, what for?" said Koopie Koo.

"We need a speed boat in order to get to Splitsville, and you have a brother," said Goombella.

"Yeah he's in the other room playing Smash Bros. Melee playing Classic mode. He usually does that during our _alone _time but it's not going to be alone for a while," said Koops as he opened the door to a dark room with the TV on Smash Bros. and a Koopa that was deeply intrigued with the game as he was excitedly playing. He was probably a few years younger than Koops.

"I thought you and Koopie Koo were having _alone time_," said Trooper already knowing what alone time meant in the house.

"TJ stop playing the game, we have important business to take care of," said Koops.

"Alright, what did you guys need?" asked Trooper.

"Hey the name's Mario and we need a speed boat in order to get to Splitsville and Professor Frankly said you knew where to get one," said Mario.

"Yeah this is really important and right now you're the only one who can do it," said Trooper. Trooper had a red shell and he wore a red helmet on top of his head. He wore a white short sleeve shirt, blue jeans and red boots making Mario believe he knew how to work his way around a fire. He looked like he was a video game addict although he didn't seem like a bad guy.

"I can help you guys out, let me get my tools and the speed boat will be made in a jiffy," said Trooper. Trooper got his tools from the garage and he met us over near the river just outside of the town. He looked around frantically but couldn't find what he was looking for until he finally told us.

"I can't find a spare engine for the boat, there might be one over in Hooktail's Castle along with the motorcycle I forgot to bring down because I was scared," said Trooper as he looked down and talked quietly at the end.

"Wait, you were scarred because of what?" asked Speedy.

"Hooktail's brother came yesterday while I was up there. I usually do my crafting up there where it's quiet but Hooktail came while I was making a new motorcycle," said Trooper.

"Gloomtail is up there, but I thought we got rid of him," said Koops.

"I guess he came back from the dead to haunt the town like how Hooktail did the same thing 2 years ago," said Trooper shivering, "we can use the engine form the motorcycle with a few adjustments we can use it for boats."

"Let's head over there now before Gloomtail uses your bike as a snack," said Mario.

"I'll happily join the party again," said Koops. _Koops has permanently joined your party. HP: 20, Attack: 2, and, Defense: 4, Upgraded: One Star, Special Ability: Can attack two enemies once or 1 enemy twice. He can use his boomerang to hit things that are far away and hit multiple buttons at the same time by using the "X" button._

"I'm going to help out two," said Trooper. _Trooper_ _has for now joined your party. HP: 20, Attack: 4, and, Defense: 3, Upgraded: One Star. He can burn flammable obstacles or use his bomb pouch to blow up cracked walls. By pressing the "X" button you can burn obstacles and the "Y" button will bring out the bombs. Have fun adventuring!_

"I think we're ready to head up to Gloomtail and show him whose boss. Whose ready?" said Mario.

"We are!" said the others as we traveled north towards the castle.

"By the way, all the monsters are stronger now so watch out okay," said Trooper.

"Pfft! We're still gonna beat the shit out of those scrubs right Mario!" said Goombella.

"Yeah we are. Just wait I'm going to the bathroom," said Mario.

"Oh come on we don't have much time," said Speedy, "I wanna clean their clocks now!" Mario and co. headed towards the castle to find that trees have invaded the entrance and there was no other way to get back inside the castle. Trooper was confused, just yesterday before Gloomtail came to the castle there were no trees blocking the area. Actually looking around the whole area was filled with dead plants and trees and then right next to it there was another area of lush greenery.

"What happened over here in this one area?" asked Koops, "You might know something TJ."

"It could have to do with the fact that Gloomtail breathes fire like any other dragon except when I saw it the fire was green," said Trooper.

"That's because it wasn't fire he was breathing it was and it's spreading quickly to all of the other plants in the area. This whole place is going to be a desolate wasteland by the time we get back out here. We should go in in case the poison has added affects," said Goombella.

"Agreed, except we still have these trees blocking the way," said Vivian.

"Allow me," said Mario as he wacked the tree with his hammer causing it to fall down just for another tree to bounce right back up, "Usually when I knock down a tree it doesn't come back up."

"You didn't say 'TIMBER' when you knocked it down," said Speedy.

"No that is not why it didn't fall down, they must be magic or forever lasting to keep intruders out," said Goombella.

"Maybe I'll just nullify it with a little bit of fire," said Trooper and then he hit the tree with fire causing it to burn to into ashes and easily passible to get through.

"Well, that worked out just out fine considering the _heat _of the moment," said Mario.

"No puns please we don't need them **ever**," said Goombella disappointed at Mario.

"We all know that is not going to happen throughout the course of this journey," said Koops, "it's our source of fun."

"Whatever let's just go kill the dragon, before I met you guys I never thought kill and dragon were going to be in the same sentence with the words 'are never able to' in the middle," said Vivian.

"You'll get used to it," said Mario. Mario and co. finally walked inside to see that the puzzles were the exact same thing as last letting this be an easy way through except the monsters were harder and didn't only have 1 health and 1 defense making them harder to kill. The last switch came up which let the heros get to the top of the tower where Gloomtail was. Trooper looked worried while the others looked ready to fight which made Trooper think that they were crazy to believe they could beat the dragon. He thought it was an 'in and out' kind of deal but they were actually going to defeat this menace. The tower at the top was black instead of gray and the air inside the top room smelled terrible due to the small amounts of poison gas that Gloomtail breathed. The place was darker and had candles with blue flame on them.

"Hey Gloomtail, you need to light some scented candles inside this room because it smells like someone died in here," said Speedy.  
"What the hell it's you guys again. Can you leave I like this town because the townspeople know not to mess with me making it easier to show my demands so that people like you don't get in the way of my all you can eat buffet," said Gloomtail.

"Well the buffet is closed now and we're going to take you down," said Koops.

"Yeah and give me the engine for that motorcycle you saw me making," said Trooper.

"So you're the punk crafting stuff in my brothers castle, you should be honoring his death you adopted wanna be," said Gloomtail.

"What does adoption have to do with this I'm not even adopted, poor word choice," said Trooper. Koops looked down and then up and started to twitch, was Koops holding back the truth.

"News flash buddy, you are adopted. Just look at your brother's face he's just trying to hold it in," said Gloomtail making Koops feel even more agitated than before he pointed it out. Trooper just stared at disbelief towards Koops making Koops finally crack.

"Yeah TJ you were adopted at a young age and we kept it from you ever since," said Koops.

"How could you lie to me like that for all of these years Koops," said Trooper.

"Well, I didn't want to hurt your feelings," said Koops but he wasn't watching how Gloomtail was about to strike and stomp Koops but Trooper moved him out of the before it could happen and they were both safe.

"I don't really care that I was adopted because I got more brotherly love from Koops than I would've with anybody else. Even though he knew I was adopted, he still cared for me and although his life has life has been full of adventure with these guys over here, it's time for my life to start and I'm going to start it by whooping your dragon ass. I may be adopted but both Koops and I have a bond that's better than anything," said Trooper holding on to Koops shoulder smiling while Koops was crying a little because he was happy his brother still loved him even after lying to him. Koops was about to throw his boomerang back but instead of throwing it normal Trooper stood behind Koops and charged his fire on the boomerang and then Koops threw it doing a total of 12 damage when the boomerang came back but when they tried again Koops' hands got burned and I guess it was a onetime thing. Gloomtail charged up for an attack leaving it to be Mario's turn.

"Gloomtail is Hooktail's older brother taking revenge because _someone _killed his younger brother. Gloomtail breathes poison gas that really leaves a mark. He has HP: 100, Attack: 8, Defense: 2. When he charges up it lets him have +8 leaving his Megabreath to do 16 damage Yikes so watch out Mario," said Goombella, "Now Gloomtail has 88 HP. Due to the double attack from Trooper and Koops."

"Always helpful Goombella but was the last part necessary, I may be a plumber but I can subtract and state what just happened," said Mario.

"Sorry force of habbit," said Goombella.

Battle Begin Mario and Trooper vs. Gloomtail the Dragon Turn 1

Mario used a Power Jump taking up 2 FP hurting Gloomtail for a total of 8 damage. Trooper uses 4FP to cover Mario in a protective fire aura for 3 turns. Gloomtail-

"Wait no more of this turn based crap because I know you guys are heading to Splitsville and they don't do turn based there. They go real time!" said Gloomtail looking directly at Mario.

"You mean real time fighting, I've never done that before," said Koops.

"That's cheating, and way out of everyone's league, what's real time fighting?" said Speedy

"It's when you fight with no turns. Someone could attack someone 8 times and the other side could attack 1 time and the battle could be over. You don't have to wait for the next person to attack in order for you to attack," said Trooper.

"That's so rude!" said Goombella

"Also you don't have to stand there and watch yourself get attacked each time you can move around," said Mario.

"So it's like Smash Bros.," said Koops.

"Exactly, now you dig it. We accept Gloomtail and we'll show you what we're made of," said Trooper. Gloomtail ran over at full speed but while dodging Mario took his hammer and swung it at Gloomtail dealing 5 damage thanks to his Power Plus badge. Gloomtail was mad at Mario but was barraged by Koops and Trooper for an extra 10 damage towards his back but Gloomtail used his Mega Breath around the whole castle while it was still charged up which did 16 minus how much defense each person had. Then Gloomtali swung his tail around dealing an extra 8 damage to Mario leaving him with 26 HP left and the fire aura dealt 2 damage to Gloomtail leaving him with 63 health left. Everyone except for Mario, Parakarry, and Goombella had health of either 10 or below. Mario used a mushroom on Speeding letting him have 15 HP again but was attack again while using it leaving Mario with 18 HP. Parakarry picked up Mario and Mario readied himself for a Power Hammer and then Parakarry through Mario up high then he came back down with a smash dealing 13 damage to Gloomtail. Mario did a couple of flips after the attack and the A-list crowd went crazy and they threw hearts at Mario giving him 25 HP again. Parakarry then hit Gloomtail with a 5 shell slams for 5 damage. Vivian Shadow Punched for 3 and caused Gloomtail to burn and take an extra burn damage. Gloomtail charged up another Megabreath but Koops covered everyone in a shell shield before it happened except for himself who took all of the damage and fell to the ground but Trooper had a life-shroom which brought Koops back to life and with 10 HP. Mario hit Gloomtail with a piercing blow doing 5 damage leaving Gloomtail with 35 HP and he was being weared down fast. Gloomtail attack Speedy but Speedy dodged and dealt 6 damage to Gloomtail with Ground Pounds. Goombella distracted Gloomtail with a Multiboink dealing 6 damage then Parakarry and Mario did the same combo dealing another heavy 13 damage. Gloomtail went to go eat the audience but Koops and Trooper already escorted them all out safely before it happened leaving Gloomtail still with 10 HP then Koops and Trooper went up together with the flaming boomerang and said, "This is what you deserve Gloomtail! Flame…" said Koops holding it back and charging it, "Boomerang!" he throw it and it cut straight through the dragon dealing another 12 points of damage going and coming back leaving an overkill.

_Battle won. You get 100 Star Points! Level Up! HP increased to 55 for Mario. End Battle Scene._

"NO IMPOSSIBLE…. HOW COULD I LOSE… I'M SORRY BROTHER," yelling Gloomtail in sadness as he disappeared into dust.

"Now hopefully he's gone for good, let's get this motor back so you guys can get yourself a speed boat," said Trooper. We all left the castle and met back at the river next to the ocean. Trooper took out his tools and started building and it was a really fast build as it did only take about 5 seconds. Trooper stood back and admired his work and the others looked in amaze at this perfectly sized speedboat.

"I'm going to miss you Trooper," said Koops.

"Don't say good-bye Koops because I'm going to do this with you," said Trooper.

"Really you mean it!" said Koops and the rest of us.

"Yeah it's time to stop fighting in video games and get back out there in real life," said Trooper. _Trooper permanently joined the group!_

"That's great the more the merrier. Next stop Splitsville," said Mario as the boat went on eastward towards the ocean to get to the town of Splitsville. Mario looked at the map and as they got closer to Splitsville the map showed where the first treasure is. Mario couldn't believe his eyes.

"The first treasure is in the town, it's going to be easy to find considering we know it's the bright side which is the shorter half," said Mario.

"Sweet an easy first one," said Koops.

"We're already almost there thanks to this baby right here," said Trooper patting the speed boat as it still ran smoothly.

"Yeah, and thanks for doing this for us Trooper," said Vivian.

"No problem, just any time after this you need something just tell me and I'll try my best to make it," said Trooper.

"TJ you're the best brother I'm ever going to have," said Koops holding out his hand.

"Awh thanks big bro," said Trooper blushing, "we're here."

"We need to go to this person named Doug, at least that's what Professor Frankly told us to do," said Goombella.

"Okay then, next stop to Michael's house in Splitsville!" said Mario.

"Yeah!" yelled the others as we pulled up to the dock on our way to a new adventure.


	2. Chapter 1: The Big Top Smash Down

Chapter 1 The Big Top Smash Down

Narrator says, "Mario and co. have finally made it to Splitsville after defeating Gloomtail in their first real-time battle but if Gloomtail was hard to defeat for our heroes then what will the other monsters that lurk on the evil side be like for our heroes. With Trooper joining the team that makes it 6 but will that suffice. With the first one of the mystery treasure somewhere on the bright side of the city our heroes will look for it the best they can."

***Mario P.O.V***

We finally reached the Splitsville and the place looks amazing with all of the vibrant lights and beautiful scenery. Now picture New York but a billion times cleaner and that's what this town looked like when I first saw it. I can't believe that was ever an evil person in this town but as the legend says someone got corrupted and we have to save him from _The Legacy_. _The Legacy _is still a stupid name for a door but hey I didn't name it so why should I care. Trooper the newest member of our team pointed over to right and motioned us to come over as he said his house was just around the corner.

"You live here?" I asked surprised. It looked like he was bumming it at Koops's place but I guess he does have somewhere to live.

"You thought I just there and play games in the back room of my brother's house all day," said Trooper. I didn't want to say yes but I'd be lying if I said no because he literally looked like a poor man playing on the GameCube setting of a Wii.

"Well it looked like you just sat at one place the whole day," said Speedy.  
"I can see your point, when I play Smash Bros. I kind of look like a drunk guy after a while," said Trooper.

"Dude, when I walked in there it looked like you were having a hangover, you had a spot on your shirt and multiple empty bags of chips were all over the floor. Heck one time you just slept in that chair with the game on the whole day," said Koops nudging Trooper. Trooper then showed us into his house and heck this place was clean and maybe even sparkled a little and seeing Trooper the first time he didn't seem like the guy that would have his place like this. Then he sat right back down on the couch and turned on the TV to the news and he had a nice sized 50 inch screen TV. Why is Koops's brother have this much money in his early 20's?

"Oh man I almost forgot. The tourney is tomorrow and I have to get ready," said Trooper.

"Last time I came here a year ago, you mean that Smash Bros tourney. I did terrible in that only like 3,023th place," said Koops.

"There's a Smash Bros tournament here and is it for everyone!?" I asked as well as Speedy. I'm not bad at the game myself.

"Yeah, it's the world tournament. If you enter here you have a starting world ranking for the rest of the reason. The tournament is held either on a dark or light side Splitsville and it's always great because we get a little over 1 million every time," said Trooper.

"A little over 1 million, I don't know if I could top that and that seems it would take a while," I said to Trooper.

"It takes 2 days and 10 hours out of each day," said Trooper. "The winner of this year's tournament gets a cash prize of 50,000 coins and a mysterious treasure. Wow it's the same one on the map." Now we have to enter that tournament. I hope Trooper was as good as he looked while he was playing by himself. If we didn't get first place hopefully he improved some.

"I'm going for number 1 even if we didn't get the prize at the end. I was 4th place because I was killed by an edge grab twice and it better not happen because dammit I want to win this so much," said Trooper.

"I'm so entering, I think I have a good chance on this," said Speedy.

"Hey I'm not complaining, if you win we still get the treasure at the end," said Trooper.

"I'll try again, but I think we should practice some to see if we could get some better scores and first place," said Koops.

"Agreed, you guys play I'm going to go shopping," said Goombella, "Vivian come with me."

"Uh okay, sure why not this will be fun right?" said Vivian then they left without another trace. Well now it was guy's night so let us see if we can get as good as Trooper is before the tourney tomorrow so that we can get that treasure. I guess the treasure is a gem a red crystal gem, a ruby to be exact, that's in the shape of a clean-cut diamond and it was probably worth a pretty penny. If we weren't in his to save the world again then I would sell that thing for thousands maybe millions of coins. I'd be richer than the princess, wow wait Mario back to the game. I used myself of course while Trooper used Roy, I used myself of course, Koops used Ice Climbers, Speedy used Sheik, and finally Parakarry used Pikachu. Now that we chose the characters we could easily be able to find out the perfect strategies. We all knew the basics all ready but Trooper had to show us all of the advanced techniques that the pros used.

"Always L-cancel after an aerial, it reduces the recovery time so you can get up faster. Just press L on the controller just before you hit the ground. You can use R or Z to but L is the most common hence the name L-Cancel," said Trooper explaining. The technique was pretty easy by itself and I could see Mario recover faster. Then Trooper showed me with Mario on the Battlefield if I use the cape just in time I could move from one to another. Trooper then showed Koops how to chain-grab effectively which took an hour but he finally got it down. He didn't need to show any other techniques to the others. He also said he wasn't going to show us wave dashing because he didn't have enough time. It was 9 o'clock and the girls haven't come back yet so hopefully they aren't lost. Trooper looked worried and said, "They could be lost in there, the shopping district is very complex with all of its curved roads on the streets especially 4th district. It's the only bad alleyway in the good part of Splitsville." This made me worry even more but the worrying stopped when the door started to open and Goombella and Vivian entered the door with Trooper trying to clean up the game.

"Hey Trooper there's someone here who says who knows you and told us the way back," said Goombella. I got a good look at him and saw a Koopa who looked like a teenager. He had a blue spiked shell, one pointed tooth in the middle and this weird wavy blue hair wait he's… holy shit what is this guy doing here. I went over and tackled him to the ground and got in the position to try and punch him but Trooper and Koops pulled me off him and set me down which got me mad.

"This guy is pure evil, you and your brothers tried to _kill _me," I said to them.

"Don't worry dude that was before. I got tired of the old man always like 'Kill Mario, do this, blah blah blah' so I just took the things and left that forsaken castle for good and now I share this place with Trooper," said Ludwig, "This guy was like the first person I met here and he's been a friend you know ever since." Never thought to hear one of Bowser's children actually say the word friend or hate trying to kill me.

"Who's your old man?" asked Koops.

"But if I said that you guys would be all like 'no way WTF man'," said Ludwig.

"No we wouldn't," said Vivian.

"Fine my dad is Bowser and most people knew that where I used to live so they avoided me so I moved here," said Ludwig.

"Hey man whatever, at least you stopped chasing Gonzales here or I'd have'ta pound you into a pulp," said Speedy.

"No problem, so are you guys entering this Smash Bros tournament?" asked Ludwig.

"Yeah are you?" asked Parakarry.

"No but I'm the announcer, and I open the ceremony so you know it's a big deal," said Ludwig giving himself props.

"Wow hope you don't choke," said Trooper.

"Thanks Trooper," said Ludwig sarcastically.

"Anyway, don't you miss the rest of your family?" I asked him and then he looked down

"Not really, only person I do miss is Iggy and that's because he's my fraternal twin brother. Only thing wrong with him was that he was always so like damn happy all the time it scared me out a little bit, but he wasn't like my immature brothers or my bitch of a sister Wendy," said Ludwig.

"I think I remember him. He has the green shell, glasses, hair like a tree top-," I started

"That's him," said Ludwig started to miss his brother even more, "He always cheered me up."

"Wait a minute! I saw someone who looked just like that before we met you. He said he was looking for a Koopa named Ludwig, he said he was your brother and wanted to say hi because he missed you. He said his dad doesn't even know he took this trip and was in a hurry. I couldn't tell you while you were taking us back because you never mentioned your name," said Goombella. This made Ludwig's eyes light and he couldn't even talk anymore. His brother left Bowser too he's not going to have any kids left if he keeps this up. Ludwig wanted to open the door and shoot out to find his brother but he said, "I have to prepare for this tournament tomorrow, over here that's the most important job."

"Wait? If a little over 1 million people are at this tournament how is a building going to fit everybody?" asked Parakarry.

"Everyone gets randomly selected, if you get 1 then you stay in the building and 2 means you go outside. Only a lucky 400 get to stay inside because he have 100 TV's in there. The people outside run around and pick the 4 people they want to fight find a group and go to someone who has the game and play at their house. Inside the matches are randomly selected, 1st place of last year is always inside no questions asked," said Ludwig, "There is a secret bonus though, first person to take no damage on the last 1,000 people get 10,000 coins. A smaller bonus of 1,000 coins goes to the person who wins an 8-minute, three stock match in less than 2 minutes."

"These bonuses sound impossible!" said Speedy upset.

"No they aren't, I got the smaller bonus 2 years ago but no one except for 1st place last year won the big bonus," said Trooper.

"I meant impossible for us not impossible for the pros," said Speedy.

"Hey don't worry you don't even need the bonus but if you do you also get a bye whenever available," said Ludwig.

"A bye, what's that you get to leave?" asked Speedy.

"Kind off, you get to skip the next whole round. If you get a bye the first round, you skip the second round and then go straight to the 3rd," I said which replaying it in my head a bye wouldn't be so bad.

"Two people get a bye in the first round to unequal numbers, so if you get a 0 you don't have to play but you can give it to someone else if you don't want it especially for the guys who want to win their rank fair and square," said Ludwig.

"Thanks for the info Ludwig, we have a hotel nearby so we'll catch you two later alright," I said to them.

"Alright and remember the tournament starts at 9 sharp so be there kay," said Trooper.

"Gotcha," said Koops then we closed the door and left Ludwig and Trooper to themselves. We got to our hotel room and they messed our rooms but it was the good way this time and we got 2 rooms. The girls wanted their own room so Vivian swiped the room key without me looking and locked the door before us guys could get to her. Our rooms were right next to each other connected with another door so it wouldn't even matter anyway because we could find them there if we need to talk about something. We only had two beds in our room so each one of us was going to have to share a bed. Yoshi went with Koops and I slept with Parakarry which I didn't mind until the girls barged in told us it was time to think of a game plan for the other gems. It was like 10 o'clock but I guess we could stay up all night and talk about it.

"We need to find someone that actually knows about this legend in order to get some information because this is the first time I don't know where everything is and how to get there," said Goombella.

"I have the cure for that right here," I said as I took out a glowing white book and turned to the legends section.

"What's that you got there, Gonzales?" asked Speedy.

"The Light Prognosticus there's only one in the world and you have it!" said Vivian.

"Yeah Merlon gave it to me about a month ago after I did another adventure accept it was without you guys, the only partners I got were pixel things and that was pretty weird. I also had to learn live-action battling so it was pretty rough. Especially with no one that was an actually living thing to talk to." I said, "How do you know about the Light Prognosticus?"

"I'm like 1,000 years old, I've only heard of it but I've never seen it in person. I knew it was that because it was glowing white and had a star in the middle like a description I saw in a book," said Vivian.

"Nice, anyway I think I found it right here the legend of Splitsville. I'll read the whole thing aloud. Ahem! Here we go… Our story long time ago starts with a treasure in a distant land. Treasure was spotted that was known to have properties to shape the world on how they please. The Dark Prognoticus has another prophecy to unfold on how these 8 treasures came to be. 1,000 years ago a man known as Gary Aaron found the 8 treasures and brought them together only to be controlled by their dark powers. Michael Toader his close friend sealed Gary away in a tower behind a steel door known by the townspeople as _The Legacy_. The treasures have the power to purify Gary's heart but they were scattered before something could be done as they were already used once to seal Gary. With the 8 treasures spread across the eastern half of the world but most were still in the region. Michael hoped that one day someone would find them and help his friend regain his good nature. Before that could happen though _The Legacy _became cracked and evil spread through half the land causing one half to be good natured and the other to be evil. _The Legacy _was split in half between good vs. evil but sadly our hero Michael passed away before anything could be resolved 50 years after the closing of _The Legacy_," I read aloud.

"That was a deep story," said Speedy.

"Yeah but does this mean we have to find someone with the last name of Aaron or Toader," said Vivian.

"Most likely Toader, he's the side that wants this Gary guy to come back because they feel bad," said Koops.

"Yeah, the only problem is that it's been 1,000 years. Marriage, Name Change, or an early death stopped their family name could've happened in that time period," said Goombella.

"That's when the internet comes in handy. We can search it," said Parakarry.

"Yeah," I said as I sat down and it brought me to the Splitsville main home page. They had family right there so I clicked on it and scrolled down for Toader to find the people in the Toader family are Doug and his sister Mary. Mary was an average human that wore a green cap and had medium-long blonde hair down to a little below the shoulders. Doug was Toad with a red spotted hat and short blonde hair. I looked and saw the mother was human and the father was a toad. It said that Mary was dead and the reason was unknown.

"Mary's dead, what from?" asked Goombella.

"I'm guessing unnatural causes," said Koops, "said she was in her early 20's when she died a year ago."

"Doug is also in his early 20's so could they have been twins?" asked Vivian.

"Probably, I don't know why this site doesn't give exact information but it also gives us the address and a clear HD photo of the person" I said. The Toader house was a block away from Trooper's house on the same road.

"Awesome this is going to be pretty easy," said Speedy.

"I'm pretty tired, can we figure out the rest of this in the morning when I'm well rested," said Koops.

"Yeah, hopefully over 1,000 years the views of the Toader family haven't changed," said Goombella closing the door and we slept for the rest of the night but before we thought we got sleep it was 8 o'clock and Koops looked like he was on a hangover but everyone else looked fine. Koops really does need his sleep so he doesn't look like this in the morning. Speedy ran out the room put ice water in his mouth and spit it out directly at Koops face which made Koops wake up instantly but still mad at Speedy, but he didn't do anything to him. We had breakfast at the hotel and got over to Trooper's house and he was outside with Ludwig and they both impatiently waited for us to come.

"Come on you guys are taking forever lets go," said Trooper then we left quickly for the Megadome.

***9 o'clock at the Megadome***

"Hello everybody and welcome to the 5th annual Smash Bros Melee world championship," said Ludwig to the crowd and everybody cheered, "These battles are going to play soon but first for our new time guest here are the rules. All battles are 3 stock with 8 minute timers and the only stage is Final Destination. You may not switch your character after you pick him. If there is a tie then the person with the least percentage wins and if you have the same percentage you do rock paper scissors. If you're in the final 400 and there is a tie then the fan favorite gets to move on and there is no count on percentage. In the beginning, only one person will advance to the next round of the winner's bracket and second place will go to the loser's bracket and sadly the rest will go home and be determined as unranked. If any of these rules are violated then the person who violated is disqualified. This tournament after the second round is double elimination meaning if you lose in the loser's bracket your out and if you lose in the winner's bracket you go to the loser's bracket. In the end, the tournament will be the final from the winners vs. the final from the loser's bracket. In order for the loser to win he must beat the winner twice. These are all the rules that are needed so no all the players look at the device you were given. It will select you as 0, 1, or 2. 0 means you're lucky and you can skip round 1 and only 2 people get the bye. A 1 means you stay inside here and fight and there are 400 spots open for that. A 2 means you fight in other people's houses and hotels who were gracious enough to lend us their space for this amazing tournament so is everyone hyped." The crowd cheered and then Ludwig continued, "Then without further ado I let the random selection begin." The electronic selectors we got started to buzz in our hand and the selections were in none of us got 0's which pissed me off meaning we couldn't find this Doug dude and ask him some details about these diamond things. I did however get 1 meaning I got to stay in here while the rest of my partners stayed outside.

"The number 1 champ from last year is in there with you meaning in order to advance you have to beat him," said Trooper.

"That doesn't seem pretty fair," I complained.

"It's supposed to give 1st place an edge to get to the top again." said Trooper, "Just remember what we did yesterday and everything should be okay." Then Trooper gave me a satisfying smile and left with the group. The two people with the bye were announced and that was Marcus Grubba, and the second person was none other than our Doug Toader. There's no way were going to get to talk with Doug now since I have to compete in this first round but if I get done with the match fast I should be able to get some stuff done. Then I back tracked, Grubba as in Grubba the dude who made us enter the underground fighting tournament. He looks vaguely familiar but he looks stronger than the old Grubba. I'll have to keep my eye on him. It looks that Doug and Marcus have some good times with each other and with Doug as a good guy I have to believe in Marcus Grubba for the time being. The others didn't hear because they were gone but they would be a little intimidated as well. The matches started and I used Mario and whopped everyone's ass in like 3 minutes and won, the kid in second was happy and was sweating while third and fourth tried to beat me up but I had 50 HP and they only had 10 HP each so yeah not so hard. I went over to the Doug guy who was playing the game still even though it didn't count if he either won or loss and I sat down with him.

"What do you want, can't you see… what neva mind I'm ready so talk," said Doug.

"We're looking for these 7 treasures and I thought you would have a lead on any of it," I said.

"You think you can get those treasures, no way not even my sister could get them and she's the best. I don't want anybody to go through that," said Doug, "You have nothing to prove me your strong enough for this information." This dip shit doesn't even know that I'm Mario. Are these guys living under a rock, even in Rougeport I got some minor recognition.

"You remember when the whole sky turned black two years ago and the Shadow Queen was said to be revived," I said hoping he knew.

"Yeah why?" said Doug.

"My friends and I took her down and saved the planet," I said to him hopefully breaking his uneasiness.

"You did that, I've always wanted to know who did that," said Doug, "I know you're serious and I'll help you out. I'm actually a fortune teller and I can upgrade your partners just bring them over here alright and you know what I'll do the first one for free and now shine sprites needed." Luckily I have some extra from before that'll help the others boost up even further.

"Someone said there was a way to get partners to level 3 can you do that?" I asked Doug.

"Yeah, if I could find the S-Ultra Stone but I can't. I know it's somewhere out there but it's hard to find," said Doug. I was a little disappointed but I still had hope, finding this S-Ultra Stone will hopefully be like finding the Ultra Stone for the guy in Rougeport.

"There is also a new mechanic here in Splitsville fighting and it works with the live-action boss battles and its building relationships," said Doug.

"Relationship? What's that?" I ask Doug and he didn't look surprised I didn't know.

"By being with your partners more your relationship grows and this gives you chances of auto-blocks and combos with your teammates and I mean like actual combos you didn't make up on the fly in the middle of a fight. At 33% relation you get your first combo move and it costs 0 FP to use but as you go up to the ultimate combo it can cost some heavy amounts of FP," said Doug.

"I'll keep it in mind, now we have the magic map to the 7 treasures," I said and he looked surprised.

"Really awesome, it shows you the way by placing it on any 'place of power' you can find," said Doug, "but sadly the closest one is the Thousand-Year Door in Rougeport and the 7 treasures aren't compatible with the Legacy. I'll tell you more on how to open the door once you get there but the tournament second round is about to start and I'm ready to play. This is all the information I have, my sister is not dead and if you find her she'll have more information. She's most likely on the light side still but the enemies here are still tough. Think of this as Chapter 9 of your adventure alright. See ya, I can't join you though. See my dad said my sister was dead because he hated her for trying to free Gary Aaron so he kicked my sister out and told her to find the treasures. My dad told me she dead of heart attack but she e-mailed me just a week ago saying she saw a treasure in some dark place, she didn't know the name. Catch ya on the flipside," said Doug and then he left. Well after that conversation nothing really mattered until the second day near the end of the tournament when things started to get a little hairy and I mean like way at the end with the Big 8.

***Day 2 4:00 p.m. ***

Well were back and the only people in the winners bracket are Trooper and Yoshi, I'm in the losing bracket. Koops and Parakarry lost already. Koops got to the final 100 while Parakarry lost it on the first hour of day two. We were in the middle of the fight when a giant machine came down and wrecked the dome leaving shards of glass everywhere and leaving everyone in a panic. I already knew who it was just looking at the robot.

"Buh! Huh huh huh huh! You thought Magnus Von Grapple 2.0 was a piece of cake but MVG 3.5 is the best robot you've ever seen in your puny lives," said the one and only Lord Crump.  
"Your tissue box doesn't scare me you alien," said Speedy, "and what happened to 3 you went straight to 3.5. Even I know how to count."

"Tissue box! How dare you call it a tissue box this thing will rip your little Yoshi arms to shreds and then I'll take that shiny gem to the boss to delay the return of Gary Aaron," said Lord Crump.

"Why delay it? The same thing will happen if you do it later or now," said Koops.

"It's a secret," said Lord Crump.

"Being blasted off to the moon made this guy 10 times smarter than before. Be careful Mario, I'm sure the reason why it's 3.5 and not 3 will become clear shortly after he starts attacking," said Vivian. I jumped into our first boss battle in Splitsville ready to pummel some X-Naut brains into the group.

_Battle Begin Mario and co. vs. Magnus Von Grapple 3.5 (Music: Magnus Von Grapple Boss Battle)_

"Get ready to eat it punks because this robot rocks in a live-action battle situation," said Lord Crump, "Prepare to meet your demise!"

"Looks like big man tissue box is back for round 3," said Koops. Lord Crump was mad at Koops's comment and he charged at him and it connected but it only did 3 damage. Goombella used Tattle, "As Koops said he's come back for round 3 but this time his upgrades weren't so bad. HP is 130, Attack: 8, and Defense is 2. He can charge up his attack and deal 13 HP at one time ignoring any defense we have so we should watch out." He actually did get stronger, but not as strong as the Shadow Queen meaning we can take him. Trooper charged up Koops's boomerang with fire and he threw it dealing a hefty 12 HP as it came back but this time they didn't try to repeat it.

"Speedy gulp me and launch me straight at Von Grapple I have a plan," I said to Speedy and he looked worried at first but then he came over and gulped me up and spit me out. With a power smash ready I was able to swing the hammer multiple times in the air. It reminded me of Chopper Bros. when I worked with Luigi a long time ago accept this time it did a lot of damage. Going down the list of 5,4,3,2,1,1,1, it did a total of 17 damage. MVG only had 100 HP left and he was getting antsy with his movement. The robot moved super-fast towards me and then hit Koops for 4 damage and fired a beam at the whole party for 8 each. His movements are too fast to comprehend now and I don't think that it was his doing and the machine must be on the fritz. Parakarry picked me up high above the robot and I smacked down dealing 10 damage and then Parakarry came back down dealing 2. Trooper was dealing damage by himself but was cut off by Von Grapple as he used one of his rocket hands dealing 5 damage to Trooper and then fired a Mega Laser dealing 8 to everyone in the room. Trooper was still able to get 5 damage across the board leaving the mecha with 83 HP left. Von Grapple then raised his attack power by three and charged up the mega beam as the whole robot started to glow.

"Taste the true power of Magnus Von Grapple 3.5," said Lord Crump as he fired the laser but Koops hid everyone in a shell shield while Vivian ducked him in the shadows. The thing is though the laser pierced still dealing 6 damage to everyone accept of Koops and Vivian. Trooper was down and Koops still only had one health left but I used a super mushroom giving him 10 HP back which made Lord Crump mad and try to attack me. I was hit back for 7 damage leaving me with 21 HP left. Wait this map has a secret skill and it was called Minor Raise: it heals a dead person back to life remaining them with 5 HP. I used the technique on Trooper but it looked like it had some charge time and Crump saw what I was doing. Crump was too late and Trooper was successfully revived but Crumped still charged a Mega Laser but the charge was interrupted by a Fiery Jinx casted by Vivian and caused burn damage. I charged twice giving me a +4 power boost and then I told Yoshi who was injured and only had 4 HP to do the same thing as last time. He followed and I did the same attack this time going as 9,8,7,6,5,4,3 down the row dealing 42 damage with one strike and we both cheered. The fire boomerang was charged and thrown dealing another quick 12 damage away leaving Von Grapple with 29 HP and his machine had lightning come out of it.

"I made my robot able to electrify itself so there's no way for you to attack me now so feel the wrath of Magnus 3.5!" said Crump attack me dealing an extra 2 damage from the electricity leaving me with 12 HP. Parakarry dashed at Magnus Von Grapple dealing two damage distracting him Koops's shell slam dealing 7 extra. I threw my hammer dealing an extra 4 damage to him. Vivian Fiery Jinx did 6 plus it burned dealing 8 damage to him and now he's down to 8 HP and we can win if we keep this up.

"This is it the final moment! Get ready to eat it," said Crump as he gained attack then charged the Mega Laser at full power but Vivian was too quick casting a fiery jinx defeating Magnus Von Grapple 3.5 with burn damage.

"NO HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN! I WAS INVINCIBLE!" said Lord Crump as the machine blew up blasting Crump of into the sky like the last time.

_Battle won. You get 100 Star Points! Level Up! HP increased to 60 BP Increased to 30 for Mario. End Battle Scene._

"We did it guys we whooped his but for hopefully the last time," said Speedy.

"Yeah take that Crump," said Koops then Ludwig came over and said to us, "Good job, and the people here agree that for saving many lives today and all the game stations crushed making it so no one can play anymore you guys get the reward so congrats you unofficially won. Come back next year and maybe this won't happen again." Ludwig handed me the ruby diamond and it was shaped like a heart.

_You got a Diamond Treasure: The Heart of Hope and SP raised to 2. You can now use the ability Zap Heal which lets you heal without any recharge time and takes no casting time. Congratulations and continue year adventure! __**End of Chapter!**_

_Narrator: With Magnus Von Grapple defeated once again our heroes gain the first diamond treasure to open _The Legacy _but it will only get harder as they move on and hopefully they can defeat others to get the other diamond treasures before time runs out. By the way how is Peach doing during this time?_

***Peach P.O.V***

They really fixed up their base big time since the last time. Everything was so clean and most of the furniture was a futuristic chrome color and it complemented the room really nicely. The color of the walls were white but a perfect contrasting white that fit with the light black carpet and chrome tables. There is no way Grodus or Crump thought of this color contrast in their head, they must have hired somebody and there is a good chance that they're evil too and there aren't that many girls out there. Grodus started talking and then Lord Crump was treated like he was the leader of the X-Nauts. Crump is way to0 stupid to be the leader so why is he the leader.

"Lord Crump has arrived and now all my bow," said Lord Crump. I didn't move until one of the Elite X-Nauts hit my head and forced me to bow down. He then walked over to me and said, "What's wrong princess you don't want to bow down to the master."

"No it's just I was kidnapped last month and I really wanted some time off. Also, you already did this 2 years ago and your plan is the same so why are you expecting something different will happen. One of your bodies will get flown off again," I said.

"The plan this time is to wait until Gary is at full power before we release him. Every 50 years he gains power and in 3 weeks it would have been 50 years since the last time. If the gate is open then we can recite this message and he will follow our command as it says in this book right here," said Crump as he lifted his hand and nothing was in it until Grodus but the book on his hand.

"No you have it now, The Dark Prognosticus!" I said surprised because I thought Merlon had both again but sadly I was mistaken.

"Yep we have it and with this book he'll listen to anyone who will have it. The Shadow Queen would have also but we didn't know about it," said Lord Crump and then I looked at Grodus who looked like he was being controlled rather than actually helping out Lord Crump but I didn't point it out because he would deny everything.

"Also, I have a little surprise for how we guard the next crystal star," said Crump as he snapped his fingers and out came three infamous Koopas of the Mushroom children.

"Why are you bringing Bowser's koopalings into this," I said in dismay.

"They wanted to give their two cents to Mario," said Crump.

"Yeah I can't wait to pummel Mario hard," said Roy Koopa.

"This is going to be super fun," said Larry Koopa but it was like he wasn't as happy at all to be here just as controlled as Grodus

"Yeah, I want to make Mario scream," said Wendy O'Koopa just as excitedly as Roy and then they left. Damn! Where did Crump get those kids from because Mario is going to be in for it especially with that armor they have on that fits them perfectly like Crump planned to capture these three from the beginning but I was forced out of my thoughts when Crump said, "Take her to the room and don't let her leave the 4th sub level." Then as usual I was forced down stairs into the same room I was in last time except shinier and newer. The door opened for me and when it stopped I remembered an old computer friend who helped me.

"Hello Peach and welcome back, all of my memory was restored so now I can help you again," said TEC.

"Excellent, do you know where the next treasure is hidden?" I asked.

"I do, it's hidden in the **Land of Fire** just south of Splitsville," said TEC.

"Why is it called that, is it just a desert?" I asked.

"No, it's actually a meadow but it catches on fire often and the grass grows back quickly. It's a place where ecological succession goes rapidly," said TEC, "According to this weather map it's on fire right now. The Koopa townspeople have a magic circle which blocks the fire so they live in peace and then crime rare because you can't leave time with there being fire all the time so you can't risk it."

"That place doesn't sound too bad but just in case can you send these 3 badges," I said.

"You think I can make things digital and send things to Mario?" said TEC.

"Oh woops-," I said.

"Well I can now, put it right in there and I'll ship them," said TEC. I placed them on the transporter and they turned into digital data. I then sent an email to Mario and it was sent through. He opened the door and let me through and told me everything was fine.

"I love you," said TEC.

"What was that?" I asked turning around I didn't hear it exactly.

"Oh nothing just me mumbling, you should get some-,"said TEC.

"Why is Lord Crump leading the X-Nauts and some people are wearing this headband. Grodus and Larry Koopa are," I told TEC.

"It's a new mind controlling device I control, with Crump leading the X-Nauts are weaker because he's so stupid but with Grodus the plan would be moving along ten times faster," said TEC.

"Why did you put one on Larry Koopa?" asked Peach.

"Crump told me too when Larry said he was tired of Mario and Peach and then he wanted to leave. He said his dream was to become a chef not to fight. Larry didn't cooperate and if I said no Lord Crump could've shut me down or worse control me with the head band," said TEC, "I have security footage of it right here. He then switched to the footage.

"Your brother and sister don't mind finding ways to kill Mario so why not you anymore," said Lord Crump.

"I think we've done enough to Mario as it is and I've never wanted to fight Mario or capture the princess in the first place. I've always wanted to be a chef and that my friend will never change and you can't force me to fight Mario any longer. Ludwig was right the whole time, I was just scared of what would happened if I disobeyed King Dad," said Larry sadly.

"Well that's too bad, bring me a headband," said Lord Crump and then he told Roy and Wendy to hold Larry down. Crump put the headband on Larry and it made Larry stop moving a lot and now he was twitching.

"I….won't..give…in," said Larry.

"Amp it up X-Nauts," said Lord Crump. One of the X-Nauts turned the dial twice to the right and Larry stopped moving all together.

"Sorry Master for being so blind I will serve you always," said Larry and then the three of them left the room and TEC turned the security footage off and it left me crying for some reason. I felt bad for him even when he captured me all of those years.

"Are you okay princess?" asked TEC

"Yeah I'm fine, I just hate how Crump took away Larry's free will. He might have kidnapped me but he was the nicest one out of the 8 of them and I hope Mario fixes it. Also, when this is all over I want to have some of his food because while I was locked up all the time in Bowser's castle it was Larry who gave me food and made it for me," I said and then left TEC by himself. Mario please help Larry, he mean no harm. I also added a second email that Larry was being controlled and if you take off the head band he would probably help. Also you too Mario please be safe.

***Mario P.O.V***

"Let's go back to Rougeport to see where the next treasure is," said Goombella.

"We're one your track X-Nauts. You guys are gonna lose for sure as soon as we find you," said Parakarry.

"Got that right," said Speedy. Doug then ran up to us and told us to stop as he motioned us towards _The Legacy_. There is a place of power here it's just covered until someone brings the map so stand here and hold up the map. I did this and the map showed a meadow that was on fire with an underground cave below. The treasure was orange and inside the cave.

"The Land of Fire is your next stop and you can get there by taking the pipe due south of this place here. Good luck to all of you and I hope that your adventure is prosperous but I must go before my dad gains unreasonable that I'm helping people find the diamond treasures again like how I tried to help my sister," said Doug leaving. My mailbox SP started flashing and peeping like crazy so I guess the email is urgent. The email said, "Mario! I know you are going to The Land of Fire so take these 3 badges and make there with great haste. The people who you have to face there are Roy, Larry, and Wendy Koopa but do not worry. Larry is being controlled so if you take the headband off then it should be easier. Lord Crump is 'leader' of the X-Nauts now and he holds the Dark Prognosticus so be careful. I wish you good luck, Princess Peach." The koopalings are the ones defending the treasure, this should be easy making me even more eager to find this pipe. We found the pipe as it was green with red on top and we all got in expecting another good adventure.


	3. Chapter 2: For the Fire, The Mines Await

Chapter 2: For the Fire, The City Awaits

We landed in large meadow in the middle of the Fire Fields and the word fire didn't really set this place quite right considering there was no fire to be insight of the whole area. Actually the grass was quite green but then a fire started coming from the west side and we all moved out of the way. The fire stopped as soon as it started and soon nearly all of the grass in the meadow was brown again but already new grass was replacing the old grass that was just made. Amazing, how does this happen so quickly and I guess this is why this place is called Fire Fields.

"Well, that was a superfast ecological succession if you ask me," said Goombella.

"Eco-whatie-what you say?" said Speedy.

"Its ecological succession, when an area is completely wiped off of life and new life comes to take the place of the old stuff," said Goombella. "The fire must come often and it all disappears in the blink of an eye. I wonder when the next fire storm will be."

"Then let's go before we become fried troopas," said Koops.

"I'm with you on that one, we can't save the world if we aren't on it. We were lucky the pipe was still here or we could've lost a hefty amount of HP during that firestorm," I said, "Then game over for us."

We continued walking and not finding that much life other than some mosses and enemies like embers but these embers were completely different than the green ones from the Palace of Shadow because these guys were purple. Goombella took out her book and searched up what these embers were.

"It going to get hot in here and these guys can bring the heat. Those right over there are Icy Flares and they can freeze or burn you. HP is 12, Attack is 5 and Defense is 0," said Goombella.

"So basically an Icy Hot pack to the extreme," said Koops.

"Took the next sentence in the book right out of my mouth," Goombella.

"Great and I suggest we leave it alone," said Trooper. Sadly one spotted us though and it was too late to run away.

_Battle Start_

I started off with a spin jump dealing the full 12 damage thanks to the ice power badge I got from Peach. The only other partner in this battle Koops did 8 damage to the remaining 3 of them. They did there long ranged attack and they were able to freeze Koops and he took 2 damage from it because the freeze lowered his defense. After the attacks I used Multibounce and was able to kill the remaining Icy Flares giving us a total of 12 star points sweet.

_Battle End_

"Awesome you showed them whose boss, Mario," said Goombella.

"Yeah, way to go," said Parakarry, "you too Koops." We both acknowledged the peanut gallery and continued on foot further into the meadow and on the way I had to use Koops in order to grab myself an HP Plus P badge and then we stopped because we finally reached a town in this place. As soon as we entered we were grouped up on and the townspeople picked up Koops and said, "Long Live the Prince!" Koops is a prince!? Koops tried to set them straight but the crowd was cheering too loudly and they took him to the castle. The residents then grabbed Parakarry and tied him up and dragged him away as the guards said that they thanked us for capturing the prince's captor and awarded us 200 Mushroom Kingdom Coins and I felt awkward accepting the money but they didn't really give us a choice so I took it. This town was full of Koopa Troopas and is known as Zellyberg as one of the guards told me as I entered.

"Okay something is really messed up here so here's the plan, me and Vivian will sneak in on conversation in the castle and where Parakarry and Koops end up while the rest of you see if you can figure out any information about the Flared Mines where the next treasure is being held," I said enthusiastically which made everyone's moral boost as we split apart. Vivian and I were able to get to the castle and saw what was going on in the throne room but we missed some of the conversation and at least we got to the good person.

"This paratroopa is sentenced to death under the rule of Prince Koopat by tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. You may take this foul being away," said the announcer.

"I'm telling ya I haven't done anything yet, you partake me for some sort of crook," said Parakarry.

"Silence fiend! You will be taken to the dungeon. Guards take him out of my sight!" said Koops as the guards took away Parakarry. Parakarry looked astonished as he looked at his forgotten partner and vanished behind the castle doors.

"Koops hasn't yelled that loud since he asked me and Goombella to join the team. Something isn't right and we need to connect the dots," I whispered to Vivian who seemed a little upset from how Koops was behaving.

"I can't believe that's Koops up there, I'm sure we is the nicest one of us so how'd he become a tyrant in 5 to 10 minutes tops," said Vivian.

"Something is going on here and I have a hunch if we listen to one of the guard's conversation we can get clearance into the mines and also break Koops out of this stage he's in," I said

"This isn't a stage Mario or any kind of mind controlling device look he's empty and looks happy doing this," said Vivian.

"Now we just entered the confused stage. Koops has full volition and he still looks happy knowing tomorrow Parakarry will be killed because of him. If this plan succeeds of his he'll definitely snap out of it only to see one of his friend's die."

"Wait hold the phone Mario I see something on Koops's right ring finger that wasn't there before," said Vivian.

"Yeah there is a ring other than his marriage ring, could it be mind control after all? We can't stop it now but I doubt a ring could control someone." I left the castle above ground and then Vivian reluctantly followed. The castle was huge and I have come here before because this land is part of the Mushroom Kingdom and there was no mention of a missing prince or anything in that nature meaning it happened naturally but first we should head back to the others before we go on and continue anything that could potentially get us in any sort of trouble. We found the others who were actually waiting for us at the castle gates with hopefully some good news to counteract the bad news.

"Hey we have clearance to enter the mines thanks to the gatekeeper for the first time not being a prick," said Goombella, "he actually knows the great Mario unlike some other people don't for some reason so we can head out whenever."

"We're going to have to leave Koops and Parakarry behind due to Koops thinks he's a prince while Parakarry is locked up prison god knows where in the castle," I said.

"Bummer! How do we snap him out of it," said Speedy.

"We can't right now because he's not being controlled so something here seems pretty fishy and we'll check it out but first we should go in the mines and check it out to make sure we know it when we go on full expedition with Koops and hopefully Parakarry," I said the last part upset. The others followed me and we entered the mines at no time at all and this place seems like a near image of Mount Lavalava only even darker and with more pretty gems. Travel was getting rough due to the large amount of Icy Flares inside the mines but then we ran into another enemy who seemed vaguely familiar but I fight started instantly as it ran closer towards us.

_Battle Start_

"Alright here we go," said Goombella preparing a tattle and landed it, "It seems like this is an Amazee Daisy from the fields out back but has been possessed by an Icy Flare making an I.F. Daisy. HP is 10 Attack is 5 and Defense is 1. There song doesn't but people to sleep it freezes them so they can't move and then there second song burns you to hell so be careful alright." I used Trooper for this fight and it was a nice fit because the I.F. Daisy's usually stayed on ice mode which made Trooper Fire Shell effective dealing 5 damage to all three of them and then I killed one with a normal jump. One daisy froze me solid and then the second burned me out leaving me with a burn damage and taking 12 damage in the process. Five for each attack one for thawing and another from the burn; that's what I get for trying to super guard. I couldn't move but Trooper took out the rest of them with a Fire Shell giving us 9 Star points meaning only 20 to go until level 8 (Yeah I level without you guys because if I showed every battle you guys would be really bored).

_Battle End_

Sweet gain but when we got to the near bottom an electronic door blocked our path and nobody could reach the switch that was across the other side of the lava accept for Koops or Parakarry we were going to have to turn around. The sign to my right read, "You made it far into the mines but the good stuff can only be found if you have a boomerang or flyer to reach it. So you better have brought one or you're going to have to climb all the way back up again because we have to cell phone reception down here."

"Damn! We have to climb all the way back up and we entered the mines at midnight and now it's 3 so another 3 hour climb meaning it'll be 6 o'clock by the time we get back up," I said. We started moving back up but then a rock slide came in and destroyed our only exit leaving us stranded.

"New plan, Vivian and I are going up the rest of you stay down here alright," I said.

"Sure why not there's nowhere else we can go," said Goombella.

"That's the spirit," I said leaving my other partners behind. We passed the rocks and went up dodging as many enemies as we could because Vivian's fire abilities would be no help in a place like this. We finally got up the mine at the time we expected and 6:00 a.m. and we rushed back into the town that was about an hour walk which isn't that far but we just spent 6 hours in a dusty mine and I just left Trooper, Speedy, and Goombella down there with only about 2 meals worth of supplies so I was going to have to buy more and then go recue them so hopefully they aren't starving by the time we get back. The walk wasn't unbearable at all and it took halve the time because I decided to run into town because we had to go save Parakarry and hopefully he's still alive to save. I was about to rush into the castle until Vivian stopped me.

"Hey Mario, I know you want to help Koops but we have to figure out this whole prince deal first. I think this is a scam by the X-Nauts to get rid of 2 of us with one stone. If Parakarry dies Koops will release what he's done and go into depression and when he's unguarded they'll strike already knowing he's not the prince." This would be the perfect plan and it might not be that this town is full of idiots. We walked slowly into the unguarded castle doors and walked for a little bit in the castle snooping and that's when the king of Zellyberg was walking around with none other than Roy, Wendy, and Larry Koopa. Vivian ducked us under to hear the conversation.

"Thanks for letting us kill these two Koopas for us. It'll make the boss really happy," said Roy laughing.

"No problem so no where's the money?" asked the king.

"Right over here, by the time that boomerang bro Koops realizes that he just killed his Paratroopa friend he'll only have 5 seconds until all the guards slice 'em with their swords and other sharp weapons," said Wendy.

"Also, the gatekeeper let those guys in and started a cave in so there's no way that Mario and his others can rescue them," said Larry in a robotic voice. I can easily tell that he has no control over his own body, his eyes were red and he walked awkwardly. They then left the scene and after hearing that I decided that we go down to Koops's throne room to talk some sense into him but the door was locked meaning we'd have to wait until he came out. With the lack of guards I wouldn't be surprised if Koops took the down by himself. But Parakarry is going to be strapped to a guillotine in 30 minutes and there's no way to stop it until the last second.

"Mario what do we do? I'm pretty sure we won't be allowed in and if we aren't then how are we going to save Parakarry before time runs out," said Vivian. I didn't know what to do at first and hopefully something will come to me mind. If we hide and try to pop up in attack there will be guards and will easily find us and take us down in the volley of spears and other sharp things giving the koopalings an even bigger advantage and we won't be able to save the world. I'll give it to either Wendy or Roy because their plan looked stupid at first but now it seems foolproof. They even probably expected some of us to escape the cave after we realized that you need some sort of boomerang in order to get the switch across the lava. As soon as we reached there the gatekeeper made a cave in occur so we couldn't even see Parakarry or Koops get murdered. By the time we cleared the rockslide normally we would all be captured and killed also which in turn would kill every single member of the team. But, we skipped the rockslide and that was the loop in there plan but with all the guards in one place except a select few it's nearly impossible to do a sneak attack.

"I don't know, this plan seems air tight," I said in an upset tone.

***Koops P.O.V***

Man it was great being here and its awesome being treated like a prince. Grapes on demand anything on demand you name it unlike my job as mayor with all that paperwork and breaking up disputes every day and hour. I feel that this is the life and no one is going to take it away from me. Then I flashing light came into the room and there was a figure that I couldn't see because of all the blinding light so I just kept my eyes closed for the moment until the light dies off.

"Koops you can't do this to your friend," said the figure.

"But I want to stay prince," I said sadly.

"No you don't, this ring wants you to on your hand and the only way is for you to take it off," said the figure.

"No way, why would I take this off? I have the money, fame, and girls," said Koops.

"I know about your life Koops, you have a **girlfriend **so why would you need the girls," said the figure, "You're the mayor of a now prestigious town you just landed on the map and you're a **hero **so you have the fame. Finally, you have **enough money to live** and even have two TV's which in my dad's house we only have 1 and we live in a castle." I guess what we said hit me a little but then I was aiming for my hand to take off the ring. My heart knew what was best but my brain wouldn't let me move my body.

"No way I'm doing anything wrong to anyone so what's the big point," I countered which made me drop my hand again and then the figure was in awe like he just saw a ghost and yelled at me, "You **killed 8 innocent people in one day **for retarded shit like petty thievery and then someone took a grape because he was hungry and you scheduled his execution 30 minutes later for 1 grape. Don't act like a fucking idiot! Your friend is down there crying because he's going **TO DIE IN 30 MINUTES BY HIS OWN PARTNER **and all you're doing here is sitting on your lazy ass. You need to save Parakarry and get back out there with your team." I opened my eyes and blinked a little and realized what he was saying was right. I need to save Parakarry but then the ring tried to restrain me and I just threw out the window and away from me. Then the figure calmed down and said, "I'm you see it my way now go before this headband does the same thing the ring did you." What he's being controlled but broke it, could he be the guy in the letter that the princess sent to Mario but I didn't have time to ask because he left and I was left by myself 10 minutes until the execution. I decided to go outside and I was showered with gifts and grapes which I declined and Parakarry stood behind the guillotine waiting for the executioner to be done with the next person. I ran down the stairs and told everyone to stop what they're doing and I hugged Parakarry only to start crying afterwards but I was pushed down 3 seconds later. An ice storm was used and it froze everybody in the room leaving it to be me and Parakarry with Mario and Vivian standing on Parakarry.

"Parakarry I-," I started.

"Save it Koops, you tried to kill me and I don't know if I can forgive you for that. You could just crawl up in a hole for all I care. You were selfish and I lair and I don't think I can live with that any longer," said Parakarry. This made me well up in tears and I cried on the floor making the ground slippery beneath but Parakarry wasn't budging from his angry position.

"Parakarry, this wasn't Koops fault," said Vivian.

"It wasn't?" said Parakarry confused.

"No, you see we were all scammed by the Koopalings. They mind controlled Koops to think he's prince and then he would try to kill you. Once you were died they were going to kill Koops right on the spot. When the rest of us came too late due to a rockslide they would have guards waiting and they'd kill all of us," said Mario.

"Now I feel upset for not listening to your apology. I didn't know you were being controlled it just sounded so real and I'm sorry too for not believing you," said Parakarry. This lifted me right back up and I hugged Parakarry and he hugged me too which made us regain our friendship and perhaps make it stronger.

***Mario P.O.V. ***

Now that we were back in the mine and we cleared he rock slide only to see Speedy trying to eat Trooper and Goombella trying to stay as calm as possible. They ran over to us and Speedy ran over to the backpack with the supplies in it and took some and started chewing on this fast.

"Well it's nice to see you guys too," said Parakarry and Koops then Koops continued, "I'm sorry I let the team down."

"No problem Koops," said Goombella, "none of us think your evil now so let's open this gate." Koops flung his boomerang and he hit the releasing the door. As soon as we got in the door locked itself and we were face to face with Roy, Wendy, and Larry.

"What you're all supposed to be died," said Roy stomping on the ground, "how'd you do it?"

"Actually I don't know how Koops snapped out of it," I said surprised. Koops then pointed over to Larry Koopa. You're the koopa I saw who told me what I was doing was wrong. You rescued me from the ring. Then everyone turned to Larry.

"Larry you idiot why did you help Koops break the curse," said Wendy with a pouty face.

"Because I want Mario's team to save the world from the X-Nauts again. Fighting against him is pointless and Ludwig was right, we shouldn't be doing this," said Larry.

"Don't talk about that traitor of an older brother. Looks like I have to crank up the headband to full power," said Roy turning up the dial physically hurting Larry into submission.

"I won't fight for you guys ever again, can't you see what we are doing **is wrong!?**" asked Larry. He sadly couldn't hold on much longer and he again joined Roy and Wendy's side.

"That's the ticket it's time to pummel the plumber," said Roy.

"Trash those troopas," said Wendy.

"And finally gash the goombas," said Larry as they ran up to us starting the 3v3 turn based fight.

_Battle Start: Mario and co. vs. the Koopalings_

I had Koops and Parakarry by my side and they were looking mad at Roy and Wendy.

"Alright, we need to win this for Larry. He saved our lives and it's time to break this headband for good," said Koops.

"Also, we get to beat up the two people who did this to him so double win!" said Parakarry.

"Here's the low down on all the Koopalings. Roy, HP: 100 Attack: 3 Defense: 4. He is the toughest one of the bunch and pretty much a tank he'll block damage and charge up himself to do a massive 10 damage if low on health. Wendy: HP: 60 Attack: 6 Defense: 1. Wendy HP: 60 Attack: 6 and Defense: 1. she's the DPS of the group dishing out some massive damage in one turn and can even steal FP. Her attack power raises by one for each 10 health you take away from her. Lastly, is Larry HP: 50, Attack: 1, and Defense: 2. Larry is more of a support than an actual fighter as he'll give stat and other bonuses to people on his team," said Goombella. I started with a power smash on Wendy who was in front dealing 7 damage and I did some flips on the way back. Koops used his power shell dealing damage in 3, 6, and 5. Then Parakarry Shell Shot Wendy dealing 5 damage making Wendy. Wendy was furious already losing 17 health in one turn but her attack did a devastating 7 damage to all of us disregarding defense thanks to her rings and stealing 3 FP from us probably for Larry to use. Roy attack all of us but it only did 2 damage to me because Koops and Parakarry have pretty high defense levels. Larry used a spell which made it so that he could cast two spells at one turn. Next it was our turn and we knew we had to take care of Wendy first. The same attacks were dished leaving Wendy with less than halve her health and her attack increased to 9. Roy used a Shell Shield which blocked Wendy from any more attacks from us meaning we have to take out Roy. Wendy charged up herself which wasn't in Goombella's book by +7 being able to deal 16 damage without accounting defense is no joke. Larry then casted a spell on Wendy to let her attack twice in one turn and then increased her attack power by 3 for one turn leaving us with a 19 hit and then a 12 hit which isn't good at all. Now it was our turn.

"Wow Larry really spiced things up, if we don't get rid of him were history," said Koops.

"You're right but if we beat him I don't know how he'll respond if we don't talk some sense into him," said Mario. I switched Koops to the front who used shell shield on me and then I switched out Parakarry for Vivian who used Veil on Koops. Roy rose the defense on himself by +3 and then the mega attack happened dealing no damage but forced all defenses to be annulated including the Veil which the force made the whole ground shake. She then attack again dealing 12 damage to each one of us Koops only has 4 health left but luckily I have on the power rush P badge. Larry rose Wendy's attack again and then gave himself dodgy for 2 turns and this ended his double casting. Koops used power shell again this time doing 2, broke the shield, 7. I was then able to use spring jump on Wendy dealing a nice 10 damage lowering her to 16 and a fiery jinx took her down to 10 HP, Roy at 95 HP and Larry at 38HP. Roy used Mega Bodyguard which used his body as a shield for 2 turns and then Wendy charged and was able to attack in the same turn dealing a whole 21 HP defeating Vivian and Koops and leaving me with 20 HP left to spare but her flower steal left me with only 10. Larry then I switched out Vivian and Koops for Trooper and Speedy.

"How could you do that to my brother, you'll pay!" said Trooper.

"It was like taking candy from an emotionally confused baby," said Wendy.

"I'm gonna crush ya into next week," said Speedy. Roy then attack Yoshi for 2 damage. Wendy did her attack that did 11 damage and Larry increased Wendy's power for next turn. This is when we take down Wendy. I used spring jump on Wendy dealing 8 damage and then Speedy used gulp and spit Roy onto Wendy thus defeating her dealing 5 damage to both.

"You boys better avenge me!" said Wendy and then she fainted giving me 15 star.

"Sis, you pay for that you lousy plumber," said Roy. Trooper used his Fire throw dealing 1 damage to the amped up Roy who then sat on Trooper dealing no damage. Larry made it so he could cast double again. With Roy at 91 HP this is going to be a very long battle. I used power smash on Roy sense his defense faded dealing 4 damage. Speedy used a mister softener making Roy's defense go down for 3 turns then Trooper used Fire Throw dealing a nice 4 damage leaving him with 87HP. Roy attack me dealing another 3 damage leaving me with 8. Then Larry rose Ro's attack up by 3 and gave himself dodgy. He only had 2 FP left so I used power smash dealing 7 damage and Speedy used a Jammin' Jelly giving us back the FP. Then Trooper did his thing leaving Roy with 76HP.

"Alright, this needs to end so it looks like I need to do some damage, Larry back me up," he said. He stomped on the ground and a rocket launcher appeared from the sealing giving him +4 attack and -4 defense, "I'll be ending you next turn." Larry gave Roy double time and extra attack damage. I used Zap Heal which healed me for 15 and then I could still attack doing a power smash that did 11 damage. Speedy used Ground Pound in succession of 8 damage and finally Trooper did 8 damage with the fire throw. The Mister Softener ended and Roy then did 10 damage to me and then 7 to Trooper. Larry's double casting ended and he gave me dodgy on accident.

"I don't…want…to…fight for you," said Larry trying to break free but was shut down but his turn still passed from giving me the spell. We unleased the same attacks this time only dealing 19 damage this time leaving Roy with 40HP. Roy aimed for me twice but the dodgy was still on and then pretty lucky took care of the other one. Larry gave me double time trying to break free of the mind control.

"Looks like I have to go over 100%," said Roy shocking Larry back into place dealing 10 damage at that leaving him at 28 HP.

"I won't forgive you for hurting Larry, he may have been my enemy but now he's a friend and I'll stick by him," said Mario. I used Mega Slam on Roy for 16 damage which I rarely use because it takes up 7 FP then a power slam for 10. The others were able to do a combined 10 damage leaving Roy with 4 HP left. Roy moved Larry up front and made him use double time on him. Then he charged up and attacked our team dealing a total of 26 to each one of us causing us all to collapse but luckily (and I dare say luckily) I had a Life Shroom that neither of the partners took themselves giving me 10 HP left and the others collapsed on the ground.

"This is what you get for hurting Larry, Roy. This battle might have been tough but I still came out on top!" I said causing the crushing blow to Roy enough to take him and his body crushed the remote removing the headband from Larry and then he blinked and tried to figure out what was going on. Looks like this battle is over.

_Battle Over: You received 30 star points I decided to upgrade my BP up to 36_

All my partners were totally worn out from the battle and Larry looked upset.

"Dude are you okay?" I asked. Larry cried into my shoulder, I knew he was just a kid and his brothers were at least 3 years older than him but how could Roy and Wendy treat Larry like their lap dog. Sure Luigi is a little under me but we're still best friends and brothers.

"I'm so sorry for everything that I've done to you guys," said Larry.

I bent down towards him and said, "Its okay Larry now that you're out of that mind control spell."

"You mean it you don't hate me," said Larry Koopa.

"No way little man you saved mine and Parakarry's life and I never got to formally thank you," said Koops, "By the way the names Koops."

"I'm glad I could help," said Larry who stopped crying.

"Hey you're a pretty good fighter and we need some support like you. How about you join us? You can even be the chef." I asked him and he was surprised.

"I can't King Dad would never let me do that," said Larry.

"It's alright trust me, just a month ago your dad helped **me **save the world," said Mario.

"Really he helped you out?" asked Larry.

"So what do you say champ, want to help us out," said Trooper.

"Yeah! I may only be 11 years old but I'll do the best I can," _Larry has permanently joined your party. HP: 20, Attack: 2, and, Defense: 1, Upgraded: One Star. He can use his magic powers to rip away paper that's in Mario's way. In battle he has the moves Attack Up, Dodgy, and Double Time to help his allies in the battle field._

_"__Great to have you on the team Larry. Now let's find that treasure and get out of this mine," I said._

_"Right, let's bring it on," said Speedy. We walked further into the mines only to find a giant slip of paper that had a slight tear in it but that piece was way too big for me to handle. _

_"Don't worry Mario I've got this one," said Larry as he waved his wand and the paper ripped apart revealing the crystal treasure. Best luck ever, I guess the koopalings were protecting this from getting to us but since we beat them there is no need for a boss. That was the hardest boss battle that I've had in ages._

_"There it is Mario your crystal treasure shaped like two arms, enjoy it," said Larry._

_"I'm going to enjoy it," I said and then lifted up my hands and the treasure responded and warped around my hands and flashed lights everywhere when I captured it._

_You got the Arms of Strength and your SP has increased to 2. You can now use the move Earthquake. __**End of Chapter!**_

_Mario and co. have defeated the Koopalings and got the second crystal treasure they were looking for and a new addition to the team Larry Koopa who used to be one of Mario's enemies. With only 5 for treasures remaining where is this mysterious Mary Toader and how will everything else play out later in the future?_

_***Peach Interlude***_

"Oh man this place is just the same as last time but refurbished, I'm already super bored of here and it usually takes a couple chapters before that happens. The same thing happens all the time and now it's time to go see what TEC is up to in 5…4…3…2…1…Now," I said aloud to myself as the door opened magically, "Who would've thought." I walked through to TEC's room and the light turned on revealing TEC who used his camera to creepily stare at me.

"Peach I've come because I know the whereabouts of Mary Toader, Mario sent back the email and asked for me to look for her. She's in the casino district of Splitsville where the mafia but it seems she's about to high-tail it out because the mafia's looking for her because she knows where the 3rd treasure is," said TEC.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"It's somewhere in the casino, the mafia already has it but they want more so they'll peruse her. The X-Nauts have also started searching for her in the casino meaning there's only one party left that needs to go in there and that's the Mario Party," said TEC.

"Great let me email him," I said as I typed it in and sent it to Mario.

"Take this portable mail device it's a part of me and you won't have to keep sending mail on me because what happens if I'm shut down again," said TEC and right on cue Lord Crump entered the room and I was surprised. I didn't think this was going to happen so early. His goons held me and started to take me away.

"Unhand me foul idiots," I said.

"We're moving you upstairs away from that computer, no more sending emails alright," said Lord Crump and he threw me in another room on the first floor right next to the entrance of the fortress. This room was considerably more plush and exciting than the last room I was in. Then outside the door it seemed as if someone was talking to someone so I eavesdropped.

"You failed me Roy and Wendy," said Lord Crump.

"Sorry boss and Larry left the group and joined up with Mario and we need someone else to take his place," said Roy.

"Yeah, and I don't know who can fill his shoes," said Wendy, "and where's Dad."

"He's here still looked up in one of these rooms. If you do what I say I won't ship him out into space," said Lord Crump. Bowser's here too, even though we've had some differences we can get out of this together so I would probably sneak out later but sadly that's not really possible with them standing at the door so I decided to give Mario a follow up email

***Mario P.O.V back in Splitsville***

"Another thing I just learned is that Bowser is here in this base two and maybe the two of us can escape. Hopefully he'll listen to reason," said Peach. Looks like Crump is using Bowser as bait for the koopalings to come to help kill me.

"They captured Dad?" said Larry

"Yeah but the princess has a few tricks up her sleeve and we have quite a bit of shine sprites that we should use and Doug's the person we need to talk to," said Trooper, "Bowser'll be fine, relax Larry." After leveling Larry, Koops, Speedy, and Trooper to ultra-rank giving Larry the ability to hinder enemy attack speed and Trooper can add fire damage to any weapon or ally everything was looking up. Whatever Mega Rank is I hope that it's good. Casino Zone was just up ahead.

"You guys ready to take on this Casino Zone Mafia?" I asked.

"You had me at ready," replied Speedy.

"Yeah I could knock a few heads into place," said Trooper.

"Won't these guys have guns and other explosive weapons, the mafia isn't known for playing fair you know?" said Koops.

"You have a shell," said Larry knocking on Koops back shell, "use it."

"I guess I'm fine but what about you guys?" said Koops still worried.

"I may sound egotistical but I'm Super Mario nothing's going to take me down," I said.

"Yeah, let's go all the time here is time we could be using to find this Mary character," said Goombella and then we rushed into the zone.


	4. Mafia

Ch. 3 The Mafia's Money Madness

We entered the Casino Zone and everything was basically like your everyday normal casino except it looked like an actual town but with ten times busier and crowded. The Casino Zone made Chicago look like a rural farmland even though it only had a quarter of the people. This part of the casino side is on the evil side of Splitsville while some of it was on the day time side. The most important part here was all the bars, card tables, and you guessed it but since I've got a 11 and 2 year old on my team they'll asking questions and I don't want to dodge and lie to them after Koops nervously dodged the "doing it" from before in his house from Speedy who was upset. He's not going to make that same mistake again and we all just kept quiet. Casino Zone was probably not meant for Larry nor Speedy to be here but they have to be because they are important members to the team. This place didn't really seem that bad and everybody was having a great time until the fire department, police, and paramedics all showed up at once rushing in at once blinding us with their lights and then since the bell rang they practically juiced up the already bright neon lights which made it so I could practically never see.

"What the hell is with all the lights here?" said Goombella with her eyes shut.

"Maybe we should've brought shades," said Koops also covering his eyes.

"Talk about lighting up the world, I wonder how they pay the electric bill for this casino," said Trooper getting used to the lighting.

"Well, let's follow those emergency vehicles. Maybe we can get some clues on how this place is," I said to the group. The rest agreed and we followed the skid marks left by the rushing police cars and fire trucks. I don't see a fire in sight so why are the fire trucks here. This place is small enough so that you can see anything from anywhere and all the buildings are only a story high and there are no residential sites to be seen since the town is only a couple miles outside of here. We continued to walk forward until we were sprayed with something and then two figures a Koopa Troopa and a goomba came out of nowhere with a knife next to Larry's neck ready to slit his throat. This all happened to fast and I was really surprised. No one's tried to mug me before and emphasis on _tried_ because they know they would lose meaning these idiots have never heard of me before.

"Alright then, Mustache Man, give us all yer money or we can play a little game called cut the kid," said the goomba and we all looked stunned and we didn't really do anything. The knife inched closer to Larry and then he started flailing and kicked which only made the mugger irritated so he cut Larry's cheek and a blood streamed from the cut which got him to quiet down and it made Koops angry.

"Hey dude, why are hurting a kid just to get some money. What are you some sort of heartless idiot that has nothing else better to do other than hold children and ask the adults for all their money," said Koops and his words felt like they were hit by a wall and easily ignored as the mugger cut Larry's arm causing blood to form there as well. Koops cringed realizing it was probably his fault Larry got cut again. I never knew there was a knife that could cut through Koopa scales.

"Lemme ask you again. Gimme all yo money and the kid won't get hurt any more than he already is," said the mugger. These idiots need a grammar lesson. I looked to the floor and Vivian sunk underground and then I caused an easy distraction.

"We ran out of money, it's our first time here and we bet all of our money and now we just want to go home," I lied. Vivian already knocked out the goomba with one hit and the main mugger didn't notice anything was going on at all and all the police were probably the other way caring about something else more important than us. The mugger pointed at the coin bag and the koopa leaned closer but before he learned I was lying Vivian knocked him out. In the end we decided to throw them into the nearest trash cans and everyone cheered when we put those two in the trash.

"Thank you, you made this Casino Zone safer for everyone by taking out those 2 mafia members from our grounds," said a citizen leaving the two chumps and the garbage can as the garbage lift picked up everything including the koopa and goomba and put them in the bin and then everybody clapped even he garbage did as we left the area to see that something did in fact happen and everyone was on the case. We walked over to see the police and the fire department going over the damages that were caused. A fire was started by someone 10 people died from the accident and 5 people remain injured with broken bones but all the money was cleared out before it burned in the fire meaning someone robbed it and then burned the place in quick succession. Everyone looked worried tape and there was police line everywhere and there were two tapped up silhouettes of bodies on the ground creeping Koops out. Some bodies were still left on the ground. Some burned to the death and others shot maliciously to death. This place is starting to get less child friendly by the second and I was starting to worry about Larry and Speedy's safety. The police wouldn't even let us in on the crime scene and they didn't want amateurs in the area. But I was no amateur.

"Hey but I'm Mario you know Super Mario," I said trying to gain access and then the security guard took a good look at me and then after quick study he let Goombella and I pass through the police but not anybody else to resist crowding. When we got to the center we saw a girl ice bro who wore glasses, a long sleeve hoodie and long jeans. Her helmet didn't cover her blonde hair that went down to her shoulder. Her shell, boots, and helmet were light blue like most ice bros and she even had the same sky blue eye color.

"Wait your Mario, it's a real pleasure to meet you. My name is Alice D. Glacier and it's an honor to meet someone as talented as you are," said Alice surprised to see me but she soon turned back into a series expression, "I'm the detective here and I have to figure out how these mafia members keep getting all these illegal weapons from."

"Illegal? What makes them illegal?" asked Goombella.

"You're not supposed to have a weapon in Casino Zone unless you're part of the police department," said Alice, "I've considered that the mafia is made of old police members but when you leave the force they make you turn in the weapon you used and also they add a hidden tracking device so it would be easy to find a police officer in the mafia."

"Have you looked at the body, maybe there are some clues?" said Goombella then Alice looked at both the burnt and shot bodies.

"The burnt body was burned by a low caliber most likely 200 degree Celsius fire, there are still some scorch marks but not enough to call a heavy fire. The shot body was shot by a .45 or .50 caliber pistol, most likely a Desert Eagle, nothing to fancy and the distance from the person who shot it was close by or point blank because the bullets went straight through. The shooting happened at 9:47p.m. because the person's watch stopped at the time of his death. In the end, the guns and fire here were low grade meaning they're a stealing from the company or B the company gives away all the bad stuff to the mafia in order to keep them away. The mafia must not know a lot about guns considering they always take the lower grade ones. I've been here for a day or two and already people died. Also it seems that the mafia aims for high-rollers and high-roller type casinos such as this one where the minimum bet is 1,000 coins just for a game of Blackjack," said Alice.

"You got all of that from 2 died bodies, you are good," said Goombella.

"Thanks, but I'm still a junior at this. I was supposed to have a partner but he was said to have gotten cornered and killed off before I got a chance to rescue him and now I'm with a girl named Mary Toader," said Alice. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner, Alice knows where Mary is and that is our prime objective although first we have to figure out where all these guns are and how to get them.

"Couldn't someone just go incognito and spy on the mafia and find their weak point?" asked Goombella but Alice nodded her head and sighed with a little shiver, "Every time the person before me sent for someone to do that they either ended up died or had joined to mafia to not risk themselves of being killed on the get-go."

"What happened to the guy before?" I asked.

"I don't know, it was like he just up and vanished in thin air before anyone could see him," said Alice. A shot was fired and at nearly hit Alice but froze the bullet and kicked it straight back in the general area knocking out two mafia spies. Goombella commended Alice and then Vivian noticed the scene and grabbed the two mafia members from behind and brought them over to Alice who then interrogated the two suspects.

"Well, well, well it looks like we have a couple of visitors. Where do you get your weapons from?" asked Alice bluntly. The two members were the same ones that tried to mug us before we got here and I rose up my hammer to them ready to take a wake but Alice stopped me.

"Rule number 1 about being a detective: Don't let your personal feelings get ahead of you in an interrogation," whispered Alice to me without letting the two on the floor and then the two said, "We don't know where we got them we just found them on the floor."

"Really? You guys are terrible liars, you had a knife on ya when we saw you last," said Goombella.

"When does someone get a gun from the floor in less than 2 minutes," said Mario.

"We were lucky," said the koopa then Alice grabbed the gun and compared it with her own. Their pistol was clear cut gold while her pistol was made of tarnished bronze then she dropped the gun she had and took it as her own possession.

"This pistol was stolen from a high ranking police officer wasn't it? This is a Hyper Pistol, they don't just throw these on the ground. The street buy for these is 20,000 coins and the selling price is 15,000 coins. If anyone dropped this on the ground they were stupider than you two or were killed and frisked." said Alice. She must have a lot of background information.

"How'd you know?" said the goomba.

"They give these to all of the high ranks while since I'm low rank they gave me that piece of crap Regular Training Pistol," said Alice.

"Wait hold on a second, your Glacier aren't you. You're the girl who took down ten of our men with this single training pistol," said the koopa.

"Well I didn't think I was that much of a big deal with the mafia," said Alice nonchulatantly. She loaded the pistol and aimed it straight at the goombas head, "I'd be happy to make it twelve if you don't tell me what I want." The gun wasn't shaking in her hand and it looks like she would do it if she had to.

"Fine! Our higher ups gave it to us we don't know where they got it," said the koopa.

"Really then what's your next move," said Goombella joining in on the questioning.

"There's a girl in a casino half a mile from here with winnings of over 40,000 coins and there are people now going to kill her," said the goomba. Alice cringed and I think that meant Mary could be the person they are after but Alice didn't show the mafia that. She put down the gun and asked some police to put those two to jail and five others to follow her.

"Hey Alice we are looking for Mary Toader and were wondering if we could follow you over there. We'd also like to help in your search for the mafia," I said and she lit up nearly crying with joy, "Really I'd get to work with **the Super Mario** I'd be honored." _Alice has joined the team for now. By pressing X you can freeze the ground or water that's near you and also you can interrogate and ask questions more effectively when you have Alice out in your party? HP: 25, Base Power: 5, Defense: 3, Upgrade: One Star. Have a great time adventuring! _We took her over to meet the others and then she stopped and looked at Trooper and Koops and then hugged them while both Koops and Trooper looked surprised.

"Trooper, Koops, it's me Alice remember?" asked Alice.

"Alice is that really you, I thought you were going to work in the army you know Bowser's koopa army?" asked Koops.

"Yeah, I kind of figured out he was evil a little late I may add but now I'm a detective and on a case now," said Alice.

"Wait!? You didn't know Bowser was evil?" asked Goombella.

"No, he was King Koopa for all I knew and he was nice to us so hey I thought the same went for everybody," said Alice, "I used to live with Koops and Trooper when we were kids."

"Wow so you here to solve the mafia crimes?" asked Trooper.

"Yeah, and I already know where the next one is and we have to hurry," said Alice. We walked over a couple yards to the next casino that still had people inside it and they disregarded the whole scene that just happened there and they just kept on playing anyway. These people didn't run when they heard the fire and the people screaming and the dead guys on the floor just to gamble for a couple more hours. We walked further in and finally we saw a girl covering her eyes with a sun hat playing Blackjack already with a big deal of over 80,000 coins won at this one table. The dealer looked antsy and then she bet all in again. The person next to her nodded and then the dealer nodded and without us knowing he switched the decks and then the girl had won even more than double her money because she got Blackjack and she left the table with 2000,000 coins and then the dealer left and said he went back on break and to get more poker chips because there were none left. I see the plan, the mafia made it so a person won a lot of money. Then when that person left they would kill them and take all the money for themselves. They can't steal from the table itself because it only contains poker chips now with all the money out there they can easily steal it without being caught so easily. I went over and talked to the girl that probably just got herself into a whole lot of trouble.

"Excuse me, I think that the mafia just set you up," I told her and then she laughed, "Good." Then she walked out of the casino and we followed her quickly to see Alice hiding behind the building and the mystery woman walking out of the casino. The gunshot was fired nearly instantly after she walked out. She moved her hand quickly and pulled up a metal shield and blocked the shots and then threw the shield at the riflemen and brought them down to her level. Alice then froze them from the neck down so that they wouldn't be able to move.

"Those idiots don't know how to be patient with their kills don't they," said the woman and then she removed her cloak and it was none other than Mary Toader. She carried a sword and a shield and the shield came right back to her and Alice walked up to the mafia members making them nearly wet their pants.

"Its Glacier man, I don't know if we can get out of this one," said one of them.

"You got that right now let's see if you can tell me where you got those nifty weapons of those right," said Alice as she handed the two confiscated rifle to extra police men.

"We found 'em on the floor 'onest," said the second one. Are they really trying to play this card again? Alice stared at them and looked intently nearly freaking on of the members out but not to the point of talking then she said, "You guys got this from somewhere else, that gun shop that's close by didn't you?" They started freaking out and then lying again, "No 'onest we found it on the ground." Alice pulled out the pistol and pointed it straight at the mafia members face at an angle clean enough to kill them in one strike. Then he cracked.

"All right I'll talk, he got it from the store about a block from here in the Casino Zone," said the first one trying to protect his friend.

"LIERS!" said Alice as she took out a second gun and pointed it straight at the other guy, "there's no gun shop in the Casino Zone, it's strictly illegal and this place has a closing time meaning no one kept the stuff here and everyone has to leave." They finally sighed and said, "Fine we got the guns over at the pro shop down in southern Splitsville." She pondered a little looked up and then shot the guy and the left and pointed both guns over at the guy on the left. She takes her job really seriously and it scared Speedy and Larry half to death. She actually killed someone.

"That guy's story was a total lie, I saw it in his eyes," said Alice.

"How'd you know," said the second member.

"I took a 50-50 chance!" said Alice reassuringly. She took a gamble on important evidence, she didn't have to kill the guy did she. I felt his pulse and there was no sign of anything not even a little.

"So you're saying you didn't know!"

"Exactly, but now I do know so hurry up with the information. There are only 3 shops and they're all in northern Splitsville and I can tell if you're lying so you better choose wisely," said Alice. The member was flustered and finally said, "The one on the far western side of town." She looked at him closely then cocked the second gun and he said frantically, "It's the north one the north one!"

"Good now was it that hard to say the truth to little old me," said Alice making the member seriously angry.

"You killed my best friend just to get some evidence," said the member then Koops said, "Yeah Alice wasn't that going a little overboard. You're going to give Speedy nightmares for weeks." Alice just burst out laughing and smiled making Mary angry, "What's your deal detective!?"

"Those guns I just used," said Alice, "were just 70 FPS pellet pistols." She threw them on the ground and we were all astonished.

"But he has no pulse," I said astonished not thinking the moment was all that funny.

"It's a good technique she knows don't worry Mario," said one of the police troopas, "Since the criminals are incased in ice their heartbeat is significantly lower than normal and when unconscious it seems like their dead. Once the other members of the team think their friend is died they usually spill the beans immediately."

"70 FPS shouldn't knock someone unconscious," said Goombella.

"In below 10 degrees Fahrenheit it can," said Alice.

"So you're saying the whole thing was a ploy he's still alive," said the second member angrily.

"Correct," said Alice and now he broke out of his ice prison and the other guy woke up in time to be freed. The took both of the rifles back and aimed them straight at Alice's head.

"It's too bad you won't be able to use that information of yours," said the first one.

"You guys can fight right?" asked Mary and Alice.

"Yeah," said the rest of us.

"Good, let's show these clowns that they don't know how to fight compared to us," said Mary.

_Battle Start_

"It seems that both of them here are Koopa Mafia Riflemen with 20 HP and 5 Attack with 2 Defense and these guys are smart enough not to get hit down when you jump on them. The rifles are dangerous that if they connect correctly they can automatically take your health down to 1 if you aren't careful," said Goombella.

"Super Armored Koopas that have really dangerous rifles. Don't worry stand by me and you'll never even have to worry about any rifle shots," said Mary. I nodded and Mary started the fight off with a shield bash dealing 4 damage and lowering their defense to 0. I power jumped dealing 8 damage and then shot the front riflemen with an icy blast from her pistol dealing 5 damage. The first riflemen attacked basically and hit me for 4 damage and then the second one locked on to me making me jump a little.

"He's lining up for a Peril Shot but don't worry I got this," said Mary. Mary used Block All shielding everyone in a bubble reducing damage to only a quarter of what it's supposed to do. I then jumped on the front one and finished him off and then Alice did the same thing as last time dealing 3 damage. The riflemen shot and instead of me taking the damage Mary took it and it lowered her 65 HP to 49HP. She has more HP than I do! Mary then used her shield crash ability and hit the koopa for 5 damage and made him dizzy and the same time. I used a power jump dealing an extra 6 damage and then Alice finished it with a perfectly executed headshot which automatically defeated the remaining fighter. I gained 15 star points but I didn't level up but Mary did to level 9.

"Wait you level up too?" I asked.

"Yeah, all humans do when battling, you didn't think you were the only one did you?" asked Mary.

"I guess, the only other people I've seen level up are my brother and Bowser so yeah it's new for me," I said.

"Well just remember if we add for people like you and I we have badges and skill sets like years and we can even split the partners we have so that we can have 4 people fighting at once," said Mary, "and if we get split up we'll both have partners." That's a good idea actually.

_Battle End_

"Hey you don't look like you're in your early 20's at all like the internet said?" asked Speedy to Mary. Mary flared, "Early 20's I'm only 18 and Doug's only 17 how could they mess up something as easy as my birthday on a website for this area only."

"You can never trust the internet," commented Parakarry.

"You said we look it up on there in the first place," said Koops.

"Oh yeah, forget what I said before," said Parakarry sheepishly.

"Anyway, let's hit this gun storehouse and get some more clues on this mafia and where they're holding the sacred treasure," said Mary.

"Agreed, let's go but first we should split ourselves up into two teams," I said.

"Cool, I don't know who to take I just met you guys 30 minutes ago!" said Mary frantically.

"Alright fine I'll decide," I said to Mary, "the girls probably want to go with you-."

"Yep," said Goombella, Vivian, and Alice.

"That means left there is Koops, Trooper, Parakarry, Speedy, and Larry," I said, "You should take Speedy since you need someone to float you around places of course. And two I don't want to be stuck with both kids I mean come on that'd be unfair."

"Fine whatever I'm sure he can fight anyway," said Mary confidently making my previous comment about me not wanting two children forgotten and he went over to Mary's side.

"Great now we know how to handle splitting up but we don't need that now it'd be a better idea to stick together," said Goombella.

"Yeah, I don't know anything about this place," said Vivian, "we don't want to get lost." After everything was agreed and the two riflemen were put into custody we headed northward to where the gun shop was. By the time we reached the gun shop it was around 8:00 p.m. and the sun was going down swiftly across the sky. When we got there we saw a white van and many people jumped out of it with guns and went through the back door. Then some gun shots were fired and some screams were heard. The store is still open and hopefully no one in there got hurt especially from the mafia so I started to rush in their quickly and then Mary followed and stuck next to me the whole time. When we opened the door no body was there and there was just a blank wall and no stairs or doors. How did they get in without any passageways? We motioned for the rest to come on over and they were just as confused as the rest of us.

"How's that even possible?" asked Koops. Alice looked around to try and see if there was a secret passage and then when she thought she found one and she noticed a small crack in the wall but she couldn't get her hands through to break it.

"I'll help," said Larry when he took out his wand and waved it around breaking the paper in half and finding a hidden door. Nice, now for my plan to be put into action.

"Mary, our team will go in through the front and distract the people in there while you come in from the back and take 'em out," I said.

"Brilliant, they won't know what hit them," said Vivian.

"Yeah I'm going to totally going to kick some butt," said Speedy. They walked through while we walked to see a hostage situation take place and the police were all there but since there were hostages no one wanted to go inside. The people inside looked happy to see us as the smiled and didn't move but the mafia wasn't too fond of us and threatened even more but then out from the vents Mary's team came out of nowhere and stalled the mafia while my team came in from the front and assaulted them. There was 10 of them all in there and they were flustered and the people evacuated while Mary blocked all the customers from shots but the store owner stayed where he was and I guess we wanted to watch the fight. They came at us in groups of three and were easy to take care of but the leader of the gang came up and said, "So you fools think you can take on me."

"Yeah, I eat guys like you for breakfast and then Mary here will spit 'cha right out," said Speedy. Then the boss stared at Mary and said, "you think this little girl can take me on, I've seen tougher girls dyin' in a hospital." Then Mary got really angry as the man laughed and then she punched him square in the face causing a small amount of bleeding.

"That hurt, if my men actually hit the target instead of miss and get hit by you, you woulda been dead," said the boss.

"So it was you who sent those guys after me. Alright then this punks going to get it and it's going to be a big one. Ready!" said Mary, "1…2…3…Now!"

_Battle Start_

Mary went in by herself and my crew watched her fight since this was technically her fight along with Alice's. The one thing I noticed on Mary's status bar was a 1.25* and the boss had the same thing on him and I never saw that at all in any adventures I've had. The store clerk noticed my confusion and snuck around the fight and joined me in the audience with the other 100 people watching the fight the crowd still had seats to fill. The store clerk said, "I noticed you were confused when you saw the 1.25* on both Mary and Eugene, the boss."

"Yeah do you know what it means?" I asked the others were confused too.

"This is called **Edge**. Edge is described of how much one person has resentment or feelings towards another. These two just met and picked a fight instantly and only had little backstory this made the edge go from 1 to 1.25 meaning both of their attacks are increased by 1.25. Edge goes up to 2 which means that they have lots of resentment for each other which would probably be the count between you and a boss that you fought before," said the owner.

"You mean if I fought the Shadow Queen or Macho Grubba?" asked Koops.

"No that'll only get you 1.5 since you've only fought them once," said the owner.

"You mean someone like Bowser or Jr. Troopa. An anti-hero that always seems to want to pick a fight even when we aren't in the mood," said Parakarry.

"No I mean like your family, usually if you're related they'll be someone with 2 and someone with .5. The person with .5 really doesn't want to fight while the person with *2 would surely want to kill the person," said the owner.

"Oh so if Mario were to fight Luigi and Luigi was being controlled Luigi would have he *2 and Mario would be the *.5," said Larry.

"Exactly, now I must go back since I've been blocking you from the fight alright good luck and hopefully you make it past this stage," said the owner and then he sat back down in the row behind us quietly.

***Mary P.O.V***

"Alright Mary this guy is the mafia boss known as Eugene and is just a rank below the mafia leader. His attack do a lot of damage with a Power: 10 but his Defense is only 1 and his HP is 99 so I would be careful. His shots sometimes have mystery coatings that could be bad. Also this guy uses a gun two and if he locks on the shot will take you down to peril and it pierces too and it'll hit all of us," said Goombella.

"He has a bad sniper rifle with good bullets at his side, hopefully your shield can handle it. Anyway this rifle looks really bad and tarnished and with your sword and other attack he can break it rendering him useless" said Alice.

"Will do Alice and my shield is going to just fine because the Great Ace made this and believe me, when he makes stuff it never breaks, rusts, or tarnishes. He'll upgrade anything for you to its highest extent," I said to Alice.

"Really, we should go there," said Speedy.

"In due time but first let's get rid of this punk," I said started off with a shield crash dealing 5 damage and breaking his defenses for the next couple of turns. Alice used her ice powers to throw a snowball dealing 5 damage and Speedy attack dealing a total of 10 damage because of broken defenses.

"You got some power to you kid," I said to him.

"How'd that little brat it me for so much damage, I hate it at he shot Speedy dealing 11 damage and from one of the mystery coatings poising him dealing an extra one damage at our turn for the next 9 turns. It was my turn and I noticed Speedy had 13 health left but he can withstand another attack so I'll let it slide until next turn. I then used a Triple slice dealing 4 damage each slice for a total of 12 points of damage. Alice used a barrage shot from her pistol each of the 7 shots dealing 1 damage for a total of 7 and Speedy ground pounded again for 10 damage leaving Eugene with only 50 HP left.

"Looks like I'm going to bring this into over drive," said Eugene bringing down a heavy duty rocket launcher that fell from the ceiling and he shot it at me which dealt 20 damage and another 10 to Alice who was right behind me and 5 to Speedy. After using the rocket launcher he set it aside and his flunkies started to reload the cannon. It was my turn now and I used a shield crash on Eugene again dealing 5 and breaking his defenses and then Alice healed Speedy using my only Super Mushroom back to full health. Then Speedy used ground pound again for 10 leaving Eugene with 35HP. Eugene started to lock on me and two of his flunkies came out and punched Alice dealing five with each hit leaving her with 5 HP. I put up my shield ready to take all hits and reduce them to a ¼ of what their supposed to do. Alice Headshot Eugene taking over half his HP and leaving us with 6 FP. Speedy again ground pounded for ten damage so he only had 8 HP left. He used the rifle shooting me but instead of 44 I took 11 HP. Then one of the flunkies used the cannon and instead of taking 20,10,then 5 I took 5, 3, and 2 leaving me with 24 HP. But I ended it with a triple slice over killing him by one HP and he collapsed giving me 30 Star points and Mario 15.

"Why did Mario get star points?" I asked.

"Any main character such as you and Mario gain star points even when they don't fight it's just that they only gain halve," said the owner. This gave Mario enough star points to level up and receive some extra FP raising it to 50 FP so his total stats were 60HP 50FP and 30BP while I had 70HP 45FP and 27BP.

_Battle End _***Mario P.O.V***

"Great now where's the base," said Alice.

"The base is in the casino zone in the basement of the casino we tried to kill Mary in. We didn't know she had the money till later, we just got suspicious since she was snuffing in all of our stuff and business," said Eugene.

"Excellent, this case is about to be closed," said Alice as she froze Eugene and the police took him away. The store owner stopped us and thanked us and Mary for stopping the mafia from stealing guns from our shop.

"For helping me take this," _You got a relationship calculator! It lets you see how well your teammates work together and how well a combo can be performed._ This was going to become very useful and I said I would use it later once we find what we are looking for. We walked outside and everybody cheered but we left in a hurry before the press and news channels came and stopped us. We walked back over to Casino Zone to see that there were tons more people than before considering it was the last 2 hours of its opening so we have to settle this in two hours or we'll have to start tomorrow. Alice already knew and we walked inside the casino and it surprises me how they let Speedy and Larry in even though they are under aged. We walked in but we couldn't find any openings to where the hideout might be. Alice decided that it was time to ask somebody even though this could provoke a fight. She went to the dealer that was over where Mary was before and she didn't sit down since the table was closed but he was still there.

"Hey buddy you know where the mafia hideout is?" asked Alice not even trying to dodge around first. She was blunt I'll give her that. The man just said, "I don't know what you're talking about." Alice looked at him and even I could tell he was lying since he looked away from her while she said it. I looked under the table and under the table there was a rug and the man stopped me before I could see further.

"Stop sir you could flip over the whole table," said the man worriedly.

"Screw the detective stuff," said Mary as she flipped the table and flipped open the rug only to reveal a path to where the mafia hideout was.

"You knew this was here," said Alice and then she opened the door and went in and the rest followed. The extra police we had around us captured him and put him into custody. We went in the door and went down the stairs and the door shut behind us and locked meaning we were trapped until we were done with our business or the other way around. I took out the relationship calculator and pointed it at Koops first and then over to Trooper and it read 66% combo #2 ready.

"Sweet," said Koops and Trooper high fiving. Then I pointed it at Parakarry and Koops and it read 37% combo 1 ready only 29% till combo 2.

"That's pretty good right," said Parakarry. With this I can see if we have combos ready and also if anybody isn't really liking someone else on the team I can fix it. That store owner knows a lot about fighting and he didn't seem all that much in shape.

"Did anybody know who that store owner was?" I asked. Most of the answers were 'don't have a clue' or 'I thought everybody left'. Even Trooper and Mary who lived here didn't know who he was, strange. Anyway we're here now so let's make the most of it. We first entered into a room just to two find two sniper guards with 2 golden bullet bill canons armed.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight our way in," said Mary. We charged in and the guards were dazed from the sudden outbreak of people giving me a first strike.

_Battle Start: Mario First Strike!_

I jumped on one of the guards head dealing 4 damage total. I forgot I didn't do so much since Mary didn't use her shield crash in the beginning of the match. Mary really wanted to go first so I let her take the wheel and she started off with a 4 damage shield crash making the guards defenses wide open. Vivian used her Fiery Jinx dealing 6 damage and burning everyone that was in sight and that deserved a high five from Mary. I used a power smash on one of the guards dealing 9 damage and one of them was down for the count. Larry casted a double time on himself so that he could help next turn. Both cannons shot out bullet bill that were blinking red at the same time which is not what happened before when I fought these guys.

"These bullet bills if they blow up on you produce burn damage," said Goombella from the sidelines. Mary waved at her thank you and the fighting resumed. The bullets didn't attack us this turn but then one of the guards took a look on position towards Larry and Larry cringed.

"Don't worry Larry, you'll be safe with me around," said Mary as she took a defensive stance creating a shield reducing all damage to ¼. Then Vivian used Fiery Jinx again killing the cannons, the bullet bills and leaving the guard with seven health left. I used a piercing blow which only was able to cover for 6 damage and Larry wouldn't be able to finish the job so he gave Mary a dodging and power boost. The shoot fired was missed and the burn damage took down the guard giving the party 20 star points.

"Awesome," said Mary putting down her sword and gaining the 20 star points.

_Battle End_

We walked inside the room to see someone that we've already known from before. His golden feathers and beak and that champion belt with a fake crystal star gave him away very easily and also annoyed me to death.

"You again?" I said as I walked into the room and the door closed.

"That's why you had to hold our title match, because you were running the mafia this whole time," said Speedy angrily.

"Oh you guessed that just from me sitting in this chair, wow you guys are clever no really excellently clever," said Rawk Hawk, "But are you guys ready to get RAAWWKED by the HAAWK!"

"God shut up already, your more annoying than I thought you were on TV," said Mary drawing out her sword.

"I knew I would find you in here," said someone from the back and he looked just like Rawk Hawk only wearing a tux and his boots shined silver to go with his silver tie, "what are you doing man. Are you insane?"

"Bro, I see you want to get RAAWKED as well," said Rawk Hawk.

"Shut up Hawke, I know your older but I've always been able to fight better than you have," said the other Hawk in a demeaning way.

"You take that back Jayke you know I'm better than you," said Rawk Hawk.

"Hawke is your real name what a joke," said Speedy laughing. Rawk Hawk jumped from his seat kicked Speedy hard enough for him to take 5 damage outside of battle.

"Hey we aren't even battling yet cheater," said Alice.

"I made this mafia because this Lord Crump guy said that this would give me the chance to fight Gonzales again," said Rawk Hawk.

"Why kill dozens of people then, you could've just challenge me and I'd be happy to fight you again," is what I responded back.

"The reason why is because I have this," said Rawk Hawk holding up a yellow crystal pair of what could be eyes, "you're looking for these and now you'll have to fight me in order to get them back."

"Under the power of the law I'm going to arrest you Rawk Hawk for murder and illegal weapon usage," said Alice.

"Try and get to me first Ice Gal if you can," said Rawk Hawk.

"You know what this means right," said Howard to Rawk Hawk, "It's time to FIGHT!"

_Boss Battle Start_

"Rawk Hawk is way and I mean way for powerful than he was before consisting of 200 HP, 9 Attack Power and 2 Defense and he can call 2 reinforcement snipers out at a time. It'd be a good idea to take out the snipers first," said Goombella.

"Alright, let's show this overgrown bird whose boss," said Mary who started out with a shield crash on Rawk Hawk dealing 2 damage and lowering his defense for the others. Jayke took out a long metal rod and swung it at the feet of the rifleman causing the rifleman to trip so that he couldn't attack for 2 turns and taking 3 of Mary's FP. Now it was my turn and I used a power bounce on Rawk Hawk dealing 4,3,2,1,1,1,1,1 for a total of 13 damage and Larry casted Double time on himself so he could cast two times next round accept that takes up 5 of my FP. One of the riflemen only have to wait one more turn but Rawk Hawk thrashed on his own brother dealing 8 damage out of his 30HP. One of the snipers loaded on attack on Larry. Mary this time took a defensive stance blocking all attacks from other players and putting the damage onto herself. Howard hit the same sniper but with a normal swing dealing 4 damage. I used a power smash on Rawk Hawk dealing 9 damage and then Larry added extra power onto me and Mary by +3 and that ended out turn. The first sniper snapped out of it but could not attack this turn. Rawk Hawk had 178HP left meaning this was going to take a while.

"Switch to live action battle," said Rawk Hawk and then the curtain fell and the stage was bigger as it prepared for a live action battle.

"That's not good Mario, now he can call 4 snipers at the same time," said Goombella, "but now all of us can come out and have some fun."

"Yeah let's kick some behind," said Parakarry. Trooper and Koops prepared for a combo attack and maybe it was their second one that I have not seen before but let's hope it doesn't eat my FP. Koops aimed his boomerang and charged it up while Trooper added fire to it but this time Koops spun around and threw the boomerang causing there to be a fiery tornado on the battle field and then Trooper was in his shell and kicked into the fiery tornado by Koops and when all that was finished all five of the men were brought back down extremely hurt. The combo did 22 damage to each and every person that it attack causing all 4 riflemen to collapse and moved off of the battle field then Koops caught Trooper and they back flipped back to where they were and high fived each other for stylish points making me have full SP points even when I was one down except that combo cost 15 FP and with Larry already have used 9FP and me 5 that took down 29 of my 50FP so I only had 21 left and it's only been officially 2 or 3 turns.

"Nice combo they didn't even see it coming," I said congratulating them.

"Thanks man," said Trooper high fiving Mario and Koops blushed a little in embarrassment. But we moved out of the way when a shot from a rifle hit Mary with her shield up lowering her health down to 52HP from 70.

"Alright guys we have to keep moving so that we don't get shot so just move around and when you see an opening attack," said Mary. We all left and spread apart but not before Mary let loose on Rawk Hawk with Alice. Alice made Mary's sword and shield frozen and she charged at Rawk Hawk and sliced him twice and then knocked him on the head with the shield dazing him and dealing 10HP worth of damage. Speedy ran up to me and he knew what he wanted to do so he gulped me and throw me over at Rawk Hawk and I did an old school Chopper Bros. dealing 13HP to Rawk Hawk but it ended his dazed state. Rawk Hawk called for more members of his mafia increasing the numbers back to 4 and that last combo lowered my FP to 15 not enough for Koops and Trooper to do their combo to wipe them out again. Koops threw his boomerang at 2 dealing 4 damage to both on both hits. Rawk Hawk was down to 133HP and had 2 minions at 18HP and 2 at 20HP. One shot Koops without him knowing but he only took half because of his shell which left him at 12HP but Rawk Hawk tried to swoop in but Mary threw her shield at Rawk Hawk dealing 3 damage and causing him to stop the attack.  
"Parakarry let's try the combo," said Koops hurting somewhat from the shot he took before. Parakarry nodded and grabbed Koops ad went into the air and started to swing around until a small whirlwind was made.

"Super Boomerang!" said both Parakarry and Koops as he threw Koops with his boomerang dealing 6 damage to everybody then Parakarry dive bombed into Rawk Hawk dealing an extra 4 HP to him. Rawk Hawk did not give in and he swooped on Parakarry dealing 9 damage to him leaving him with 16HP left and a minion tried to shot me but I dodged and retaliated with a quake hammer dealing 4 HP to everyone the field including team mates that weren't Vivian or Parakarry.

"Hey you know that all hit moves now hit your teammates to in a live-action battle right?" asked Mary.

"Now I do," I said embarrassed.

"Smooth," said Trooper sarcastically.

"Not helping a lot Trooper," I said aggravated and he just laughed it off and we continued. Alice shot her pistol and did a headshot killing one of the minions in a one hit K.O. but her pistol became overheated and couldn't be used for another few minutes. That took out 2 of her 4 abilities to use. One of the minions shot Koops again this time taking him down to 1 HP but thanks to my Power Rush P badge his power is up by +2. Sadly I didn't have a Mega Rush badge. Rawk Hawk came in for the attack but it was easily super guarded by Koops as Larry buffed up Koops's attack by +2 and then gave him dodgy so he could stay alive longer. Koops then attacked Rawk Hawk with a Shell Slam and he also took the other minions out of the picture and Trooper gave him a high five when he was done raising their relationship by 1%. The whole thing dealt 6 normally +4 for a total of 10 damage. Rawk Hawk was down to 106HP and my Power Slam brought him down to 99HP making him over half way dead and with no minions at his disposal for a couple of turns the rest of the battle should be easy from here. I took a Jammin' Jelly, my last FP restoring item until I buy another one which could be a while. Then I nodded at Koops and Trooper to do their special.

"Trooper we don't have to make the tornado as wide now since there is only one enemy meaning we can do more damage," said Koops.

"Roger that, Bro," said Trooper.

"I ain't done yet," said Rawk Hawk charging an attack but Koops and Trooper already started dealing their 22+4+an extra 4 for not having to make the tornado wide so a total damage count of 30HP. Then Mary charged in with a triple slice dealing 6HP and Speedy and I used Chopper Bros again dealing 13HP again. Howard then triple attacked Rawk Hawk dealing 3 damage and tripping Rawk Hawk so he couldn't move for a couple seconds which Larry attacked dealing 1 HP and then Vivian burned Rawk Hawk dealing 5 damage and burn damage for another 1 damage. Speedy ground pounded dealing another 8HP and finally I power smashed for another 8HP. I can't let Koops and Trooper do another combo since I only have 15FP left. The burn took another one out of Rawk Hawk leaving him with 23HP left after that onslaught of attacks but he still had fight left in him which I was surprised by even though he looked fairly tired.

"Told you… I ain't… done yet," said Rawk Hawk powering up and becoming bigger raising his attack and defense by 3. Then Rawk Hawk slammed on Koops but luckily he still knew how to super guard. The shield throw did nothing to Rawk Hawk and my Power Jump only did 5 damage. Mary used a shield crash dealing 1HP but lowered his defense by two. Vivian punched Speedy into Rawk Hawk dealing 7 damage and burning him badly dealing 2 instead of 1. That took Rawk Hawk down by 9 damage leaving him with now 7HP. I finished the deal using the Arms of Strength Earthquake attack dealing 6 damage but luckily the burn took effect before he could finish off Koops and we had finally won that exhausting battle.

_Battle over 100 star points Level Up._

I leveled up FP to 55 and Mary leveled up BP to 30. Rawk Hawk fell to the ground.

"Get it bro, you should've never done this and now look like you're getting arrested because of your obsession over this Gonzales dude. Your title match is with that kid Yoshi, if he got up to the title match I'm sure he's good. I know, you couldn't accept you might lose to a kid so you left and went to pursue Gonzales," said Jayke.

"I guess you are smart and I would've gotten away with it too," said Rawk Hawk.

"But now you're looking at between 10 to 20 years in jail," said Alice.

"Really only 10 to 20?" asked Mary and I.

"No it's more of a life sentence but I've always wanted to say that and Rawk Hawk your under arrest!" said Alice hand cupping the beat up Hawk Rawk as she took him outside.

"Hey, Jayke long time no see. I know it's only been a couple months since senior year ended but man it seems like forever," said Mary as she ruffled his feathers embarrassing Howard.

"You kind of just went up and left. I went looking for you because a website said you've been dead for a full year and that you were 20 years old," said Jayke.

"Someone must've hacked in and tried to get me off the radar for bad purposes but I don't know someone who would do that," said Mary.

"I don't know but have you seen Ace anywhere," said Howard.

"There's that Ace guy, who is he?" asked Speedy.

"He's a high school friend of mine," said Mary, "anyway he's at his home town with his mom right now you know before he moved."

"He went back Poshley Heights!?" said Jayke.

"No even further back, I mean when his brother was first born," said Mary.

"He's in Petalburg again, I haven't been back there in a couple years," said Jayke.

"Hey, Koops is the mayor of that town," said Vivian.

"Yeah, I saw someone new come in he's at his mom's house right now, his younger brother goes to the school and Ace started running a shop," said Koops.

"Yeah, I've seen his brother around town, he's a nice kid," said Trooper.

"Awesome, we should visit him and maybe upgrade that shield of yours Mary, it's a little broken and Mario you're hammer could use some tweaking," said Jayke.

"We should but first," I said as I walked up to the Eyes of Truth and picked them up

_You got the Eyes of Truth and raised your SP up to 3 and can now passively see that stats of all enemies. Also, you can for see attacks by using the ability Future Spike which deals damage after a set amount of turns. __**End of Chapter!**_

_Our heroes have defeated Rawk Hawk and his evil Mafia gang and also received another treasure, The Eyes of Truth but what of Princess Peach and even Bowser. How else will this story play out as it goes along?_

***Peach Interlude***

Man back in the old room as usual but I should really be figuring out where Bowser is first and find the memo up on him and hopefully he'll listen to reason. I walked out of the room and surprised to find no guards watching my every step like usual but then I heard to X-Nauts talking about some meeting that was going down meaning all the halls were empty and all doors were locked meaning I can't get back to my room. I went down the elevator into TEC's room which was also poorly guarded and was most likely easily expected at this point.

"Peach you must get Bowser and bring him to the escape pod but sadly you must stay here," said TEC.

"How come?" I asked.

"If you leave they'll know it was me and they would shut me down you would be no longer to help Mario and the others out on his quest," said TEC.

"I get you now but there's been talk about some new guy that came in too do you know where he is," said Peach.

"Oh you mean Prince Marth," said TEC.

"Marth, he's not from here are they trying to unbalance the universe," I said.

"Exactly, they need a prince from a different world to awaken the Gary Aaron and Marth fits the bill," said TEC, "I don't know where he is but Bowser is in your old room right now and just a little bit from the escape pods."

"Great thanks," I said. I left the room and TEC shut off the lights and it was glad to see Bowser was okay.  
"Princess will it's nice to see you," said Bowser blushing.

"No time Bowser come on your leaving through the escape pods," I said as I pushed him out the room into the area where the pods were and pushed him in.

"What about you?" said Bowser concerned and a little angry.

"I'll be fine, just work with Mario alright and save the universe," I said.

"Do Me haavvveee to," said Bowser.

"YYYEEEEEESSSSS you do, we did this last month so just do it again," I said as I pushed the button and he left the area destined to meet Mario at Splitsville. Well he's out so I guess I'll head back up before I get in some more trouble than I am already in.

***? P.O.V***

Don't worry I'll just fall and hopefully I'll fall into a nice and easy location like a river. I crash landed straight into someone's house and there was a guy with blue hair looked like a turtle but with a spiked.

"So where'd you like come from," he said.

"Hey you speak English that's a first and frankly I don't know where I am so I'm going to need help," I said.

"Well, I guess Mario might be coming back soon," said the turtle.

"Wait I know Mario which means this is the Mushroom Kingdom or something around there," I said.

***Mario P.O.V _Back at _The Legacy***

"Well that's great, now we have a reason to go back to Petalburg," said Jayson looking at Mary.

"Yeah but it's like 11:00 let's get some shut eye," said Mary.

"Agreed, let's go back to my house, I'm sure Ludwig's got something I'll text him," said Trooper he said as he sent the text to Ludwig and then hung the phone up.

"Wow look a shooting star," said Speedy he said but it started coming closer towards.

"That's not good everybody hit the deck," I said as the unidentified object dropped straight into the lake about a mile over.

"We can check what that is tomorrow it should still be there right," said Koops.

"I'm going to check it I mean it nearly took my face off, it deserves some recongnition at least," said Mary as she started walking in the area towards where it landed. The rest of us followed and half of us are half-asleep accept for Speedy who somehow fell asleep after all of that so I decided to pick him up and bring him over to the crash sight. Before though it seems my letter from Peach has finally come along so I read it to myself.

_Dear Mario:_

_Hey me Peach again and stuff here is pretty nice I guess, the X-Nauts had some sort of meeting I didn't get the chance to spy on but I still got some news from TEC. I found out the location of Bowser and I found out there were some escape pods so I brought him down with one of those and hopefully isn't stubborn in joining your team. Anyway, I know that your upset I didn't come down to but if I did then I wouldn't be able to save someone else who also feel here with me. Prince Marth from Fire Emblem is here as well and he's not from this world which means they broke the balance of the universe. This could be a part of their plans so be wary for things out of the ordinary. Hope you come by soon and I'll see if I can get Marth out of this as well as I got Bowser out as well. _

_Good Luck on the next star,_

_Peach 3_

Break the balance of the universe, why the hell would they want to do that unless it has something to do with breaking the seal on this Gary Aaron character that's been locked in _The Legacy_. This could mean that the meteor we thought we saw is actually the escape pod that Bowser in meaning I told everybody to move back after we dug it up from the water and I told them before everyone went crazy and started fighting.

"Okay guys from the email I just got it's my safe bet that Bowser is inside that space pod and don't worry he's most likely cooperative alright," said Mario.

"How so, he's the King of Evil!" said Koops failing his arms for emphasis.

"Trust me on this one, just a month ago me, him, Peach, and Luigi all saved the universe from an evil Count Bleck and Dimentio that were using the Chaos heart," I said taking to everyone's surprise.

"Why would your nemesis help you in something that if he thought of it he would do it himself?" questioned Goombella.

"He wants to be the one to do it himself, if the world is destroyed he wants it to be his fault," said Mario. The conversation stopped as soon as Bowser had opened the door and when it flung open he nearly jumped out of it scaring the front row of my team. He didn't get any space sickness after that ride, I'd be throwing up from that. He does look a little woozy but not too much to make him lose balance.

"Mario, what are you doing here?" asked Bowser getting into a fighting stance. I made an X with my arms signaling I wanted no fight.

"Bowser we gotta help save the world again alright, set aside our duels so that we can save the world then later you can go back to planning to destroy me," I said which made Bowser think.

"There planning to destroy the world," said Bowser with his mouth wide open.

"Yeah that's right," said Mary.

"I don't want it destroyed, I just want to rule it so those bastards better not think about doin' anything while I'm here or I'll Bowserize them," said Bowser confidently making Mary face palm.

"You go dad," said Larry.

"Well it looks like my son's already beat me to the punch, you better have been doing good," said Bowser, "send those enemies to the ground."

"Anyway let's go back to Trooper's," I said trying to stop this from becoming a father-son talk and taking too long.

***? P.O.V***

"So you're here because Prince Marth you say has like been totally captured by some weird alien dudes?" said Ludwig.

"There we go and trust me when I get my hands on them… They'll get no sympathy from me," I said back to him.

"Well awesome, it's the middle of the night meaning my roommate should be here soon with all of friends and most likely some new ones," said Ludwig.

"Great, I shall wait here for there arrival. You cook?" I said.

"Not as well as my younger brother Larry but I can work my way around pancakes," said Ludwig.

"At 11:20 p.m. maybe you should wait for your younger brother," I said questionably.

"Yeah, but he's long gone back in my dad's castle so they're going to love these pancakes weither they want it or not," said Ludwig. The doorbell rang and then Ludiwg said, "Great they're here could you answer it?"

"I'm the guest," I said.

"You made a skylight in my roof," said Ludwig.

"Touche," I said then I kicked down the door to everyone's surprise and then Ludwig came running over.

"Why'd you kick the door down!" said Ludwig.

"How else am I going to open it?" I asked sarcastically.

"You could TURN THE KNOB AND PUSH! You break the roof and now my door," said Ludwig.

"Don't worry I got muscles and that's what they're for," I said making Ludwig sweat drop.

"Sorry to interrupt but can we come in," said Trooper.

"Who's the hunk with the blue hair," said Goombella.

"Why are you here, Ike," said Mario a little astonished.

"Prince Marth has been kidnapped and it's my duty to find him and bring him back safely," I said.

"Hey, enough with the chit-chat can we go inside," said Bowser angrily losing his patience.

"Woah, seems your dad's here too Ludwig you brought the whole crowd," I said.

"King Dad's here!?" said Ludwig then he looked around, "Larry is too."

"Yeah," said Bowser and Larry.

"Excellent do you know what this means," said Ludwig happily.

"Family reunion?" asked Jayke.

"No, I don't have to cook anything!" said Ludwig then we all stared at him.

"Really that's it?" asked Mary.

"Hey if he wasn't here, you'd be having pancakes from the box," said Ludwig. Then after a couple seconds Trooper said, "No never again, not after last time alright. Larry let's go to the kitchen." Trooper dragged Larry into the kitchen quickly before Ludwig got any ideas.

"Hey I made those pancakes well last time," said Ludwig.

"You almost burned down the whole house," said Trooper.

"No," said Ludwig denying it.

"Yeah we got the whole thing remodeled and everything it cost me all the winnings from the last Smash tournament," said Trooper.

"Damn, he's right you are banned from the kitchen big bro," said Larry.

"I don't know where you got the genes to become a chef Dad can't cook for crap," said Ludwig.

"Hey, I can make steak," said Bowser.

"You just put it on the thing and you flip it and your done. Half the time the whole thing except for the outside is still red and the outside is pink. You think it's done after 1 minute because you rushed it," said Ludwig arguing.

"Alright let's just both agree you should leave all your cooking to Larry," said Mary tired of food conversation when she had no food.

"Alright 20 minutes and I've seen like 5 talking turtles, a talking mushroom, some sort of purple shade thing, a flying turtle, one suburban area that's surrounded by a city for some reason and then now a talking golden colored hawk while Mario holds a baby dinosaur in his hands," I said confused to the point of fainting, "How the hell do you put up with this Disneyland fantasy every damn day no offense to you guys."

"First day here, I wondered the same thing and frankly," started Mario and then he whispered to me, "it's still pretty freaky. Of all the guys here why is the plumber saving the princess."

"That also came to mind," I whispered back to Mario.

"Anyway now that we are done with that and Larry's done making food I say that we eat and just do on with our lives," said Goombella.

"Agreed," said the rest of us as we came into the kitchen seeing literally a feast on the table.

"This is going to be epic," said Ike and Bowser nearly drooling at the food.

"Don't ruin it," said Larry closing both Ike and Bowser's mouths.

"Now let's eat!" said everybody.


End file.
